Fry Boy, Fry Girl
by mizushirazu
Summary: Onoda and her friends graduated from high school and are killing time not going to a university for some reason. Instead, they work in a fast food restaurant. Things start to change when a new guy joins their ranks. Warning: Onoda is a girl!
1. Chapter 1

**Notes:****Here it is, the first chapter of a multi-chapter thing happening in my mind now. Born around the small-fry joke (that doesn't work in Japanese obviously) and the fact my cute friend works in a fast food herself. **

**Midosaka is the main pairing and Toumaki appears later as a secondary pairing, but I'm sure some other pairings will be hinted eventually.**

**More is to come sooner or later. Expect lots of (more or less) romantic and (more or MORE) clichéd moments, because I'm a rotten shoujo trash.**

Sakamichi stood on a bus stop. It was something past ten o'clock in the evening and the small city she worked in was shrouded in a thick layer of mist. It was almost scary, but the girl wasn't afraid at all. She was used to going home at night no matter what weather had in store for her, and besides, earphones plugged in her ears supplied her brain with optimistic soundtrack of her favourite show, Love Hime. That alone made her feel absolutely invincible, as if she herself could turn into a magical girl and fight off any bad guys that could possibly try to bring her harm.

„Hiiime hime...," she hummed for herself, staring blankly at the street and passing cars. She still had some time left before her bus would come, and she decided to spent it reminiscing about today's work. So much was supposed to happen today, yet it hadn't and Sakamichi couldn't decide if she was relieved or disappointed.

She started working in the local McDonald's a few months back. Beginnings were never easy and her case was no different, but she got by and now felt like a pro at preparing burgers and cleaning dishes and nearly everything else, maybe with an exception of selling stuff to customers, because she was a really shy girl. There was still a room for her to improve in talking to people in general, she knew that very well.

Today was sort of special, though. A new colleague was supposed to join their ranks and the restaurant's manager, a young man with bizarre fashion sense and somehow iridescent hair, had a brilliant idea to let Sakamichi take care of him. That included showing him around, teaching him how to do things, all the stuff needed to ensure the smooth run of the business.

When she learned that, she had a panic attack followed by something that possibly felt like a slight heart attack and in the end her stomach got attacked by a swarm of bees, not even the oh-so-clichéd butterflies. She was so scared! Yet, she felt quite excited too.

„The newcomer's first name is Akira... That's a boy's name! Akira-kun... I wonder what kind of person is he? It would be nice if he was kind. What if he'll call me ‚senpai'? No one ever called me senpai! Ah... It would be like a shoujo manga scenario!" she kept blushing while cutting tomatoes and the thoughts of having someone to take care of distracted her so much she even cut her finger. However, not even that could stop her from fantasizing.

„If Akira-kun was with me now, maybe he'd lick the cut for me? Now wouldn't that be kinda hot?" she squealed internally when she cleaned the wound under running water.

But, that Akira-kun didn't come. He didn't even call the restaurant to apologise and wouldn't pick up his phone, so they had no idea what happened to him. Sakamichi started to worry and in the end, it was the manager himself who had to calm her down, telling her it was probably just a miscommunication of some sort. She left work a bit upset, but Love Hime soundtrack she'd listened to for the last few minutes was working wonders on her mood. As always.

Despite being lost in her personal dream world, she still managed to keep track of time. The bus that would take her home was late. Sakamichi rechecked the timetable. Maybe she'd made a mistake? She wasn't going home by bus that often after all. Normal she'd go by bike, but it was being repaired at the moment. No, no mistake. The bus was late after all!

Suddenly a bike appeared out of the blue, the blue being the mist surrounding the scene. It startled her a little – she couldn't hear it coming due to the earphones. The person riding it was a tall, exceptionally skinny guy who seemed to be roughly the same age as Sakamichi. There was a little reason to pay any attention to him as he would simply pass the bus stop and she'd never see him again, but instead of riding past the glassed girl, he pulled to the roadside, got off the bike and stared at his front wheel as if there was something wrong with it. His look was a bit frightening. Maybe he was trying to murder the wheel with a mere stare.

Sakamichi kept watching him with a bit of fascination. What a weird guy! He was indeed pretty tall – it wasn't just her imagination as she saw him on the bike. The length of his hands and legs was almost unnatural and he had these eyes of a dead fish going on. He looked really bizarre, not a handsome guy at all, „interesting" at best, miles away from the typical beauty standard girls in Sakamichi's age sought in boys.

He crouched down, touched the front wheel and made an utterly creepy face.

„... Gross..., " he mumbled. At least that's what it sounded like to Sakamichi. Then again, why the hell would he mumble something like that? Unless he accidentally ran through a pile of dog poo.

„Um, excuse me," Sakamichi took off her earphones. The guy turned his head and glared at her with his empty, dark eyes. It stopped her from continuing the dialogue for a brief moment, but she decided to go for it and ask him anyway.

„Is it a flat tire?" she wondered politely, expecting a reply straight away, but he took his time to answer. It felt like a century had passed before he said anything.

„No, the rim is a mess," he retorted. A teenage girl like her would surely had no idea what „a rim" was.

„Oh, the rim... that's really bad...," Sakamichi sighed. „I love to ride bikes a lot and I happen to have a puncture repair kit in my backpack, even though I went to work by bus today. There's nothing I can do about a broken rim, though," she smiled apologetically. The guy, however, reciprocated her smile with a nasty frown.

„Do I look like I don't have stuff to repair punctures with me?" he hissed venomously.

„Ah... not at all, now that you've mentioned it. That's a road racer after all. Sorry about that," Sakamichi apologised as if it was something completely natural, even though she'd made no mistake whatsoever. To her, it felt like the smile would somehow protect her even if he started to act rude. She got it, he was angry about the bike. She would be pissed off too if her comfortable grandma bicycle broke in the middle of the night when she was on her way home. In fact, that's exactly what had happened two days ago.

Luckily, he left her apology without any sort of reaction. Other people would find it rude, but Sakamichi was ok with it. She decided to leave him alone in spite of her curiosity about him and his bike. She used to be a manager for a bicycle racing club for her last year of high school and her really good friends and current co-workers were bikers from the very same club thus seeing a road racer brought back a lot of memories and it had a lot of emotional value attached to it for her. It couldn't be helped though, he didn't seem really friendly and she didn't want to annoy him any further, so she opted for waiting patiently for the bus, listening to her music some more.

Meanwhile, the guy took off his rucksack and started looking for something in it. He appeared to be really upset though. Well, it was unlikely he had a spare wheel in his pocket and Sakamichi knew well it wasn't an easy task to fix a cracked rim.

„Gross... so gross...," he kept repeating with a slightly insane expression. Sakamichi wondered if he was ok in his head. He surely was atypical in many ways. Not just his looks, but his behaviour and speech patterns too. Then again, she was hardly a usual eighteen-year-old girl herself, so she supposed she had no right to judge him.

As the boy searched through his stuff in the backpack without any luck of finding something useful, he was getting more and more disturbed and loud in his mindless comments about the situation. Sakamichi was glad she was listening to music, she still heard him, but this way she could at least pretend she did not. However, her determination to ignore him suffered a great blow when a single t-shirt that looked a lot like a part of a certain uniform fell out his rucksack. She took off her earphones again.

„Excuse me, but... do you by any chance work in the McDonald's?" she smiled as if she just found a soul mate for life.

„Don't say that name, it's so gross it makes my insides twist," he scolded her. Oh, he was so annoyed. Too annoyed to hold a normal conversation, the girl was aware of that.

„Sorry... Do you by any chance work in... that place?" she corrected herself. He gave her a really mortifying look. She was about to laugh at him, right? After all, people working in fast foods were so very gross. He was prepared to crush her as soon as she spoke another word.

„What if I do?" he asked, fishing for her negative reaction.

„Ah! That would make us colleagues, sort of! I work in the Mc as well!" she gleamed. „Where do you work? Not in the one nearby, that's for sure! I'd remember you!" He stared at her quietly for a while. Geez, she made it sound like it was an awesome thing, working in a gross place like that.

„I was supposed to work in the one nearby," he replied lazily, wondering what made him admit that. He had no plans to start a proper conversation with the silly-looking girl.

„Really?" she blinked. „But I don't remem... Wait, could you be Midousuji Akira-kun?" she asked, her tension rising by a hundred percent.

„Yeah," he nodded. What was he doing, he was getting so gross, he thought for himself as he saw the girl blush a little.

„Thank god!" she let out a relieved sigh. „Boss tried to contact you to find out what was wrong, but you didn't pick up your phone. I was getting worried something bad had happened to you!"

„Worried? About me? Are you stupid?" he asked her in a sharp tone. As if she offended him.

„Stupid, that's probably right," she laughed. „Why would I worry about someone I've never met before, right? You must think I'm a weirdo."

„I think you're gross," he admitted without much ado.

„Yeah, I guess I'm gross as well," she nodded understandingly. She'd always been like that, apologising for things that weren't even her fault. It was almost impossible to make her angry. „But you see, my boss told me I'd be the one teaching you about everything and at first I was really scared, but then I got somehow excited and you didn't show up so I guess I got quite disappointed in the end," she sighed and took a deep breath to say something else.

„Gross," he shrieked as she let out the very same word, so it happened they said it perfectly in sync. That alone freaked him out.

„GROSS! SO GROSS!" he yelled.

„Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to make you angry! But it seemed to me like you could say that about my worries...," she shrugged.

„Girls acting like smartasses are the grossest," he noted.

„That's right, isn't," she nodded. „I don't know why you didn't come today, but don't worry! Our boss is super kind and extremely cool, I'm sure he will forgive you! So please, come tomorrow! I promise I'll do my best and teach you everything about hamburgers!" she begged him. Her fear of the weird guy was all gone, if there was any to begin with.

He couldn't wrap his head around how gross the girl was. He was acting anything but friendly, yet she was shining like an excited firefly, babbling these super gross things about work he'd decided he wouldn't go to in the end. It pissed him off even more that she seemed indestructible. Maybe she was one of those people that were unbelievably positive when they interacted with other human beings. No, not positive nor friendly. In his opinion they simply lacked a backbone.

„I'm not coming tomorrow. I'm not coming ever. I have no plans to work in that gross place, especially if a gross girl like you is my co-worker!" he told her sternly. Sure, she could ask him why he applied for the position in the first place. It wasn't her problem. He needed some money and decided to apply for the job in a moment of weakness, but now the weakness was gone. No way he'd work for such a gross company! He watched the girl. She opened her mouth, ready to tell him some other disgusting things. She would totally scold him for being irresponsible and selfish. She would laugh that he's stupid. Normally people would do that.

„Oh... That's really bad. I was looking forward to working with you," she sighed and looked so disappointed. „But it can't be he... oh!"

A bus appearing at a corner of the street interrupted her. She took a few nervous steps to the edge of the sidewalk as the bus stopped in front of her.

„It's my bus! I'm afraid I have to go. I'll tell my boss that you're not coming, so you don't have to worry about it!" she said quickly while getting on the vehicle. Once inside she sat on an empty seat next to the window and waved at him cheerfully. He looked back at her, but of course he wouldn't wave at the girl. Why would he do something so stupid? Instead, he stuck out his tongue at her. He found it really satisfying watching her expression sadden a little. The bus pulled off with the girl most likely coming to a conclusion he was not a nice person. Good. He would hate if it was any other way. He wondered if he should pay her a visit as a customer sooner or later to torture her a bit.

Sakamichi was thinking a lot about the unusual meeting on her way home. Maybe it was fate at works that she met him, maybe it was a mere coincidence. However, she was glad no matter what it was. At least she knew nothing bad had happened to him. She had a troublesome habit of worrying about people.

The next day she picked up her bike at the bicycle repair shop stationed in the village she lived in and went to work with plans of explaining her boss that Midousuji Akira wouldn't come. The ride to work seemed much more pleasant than usual. She knew one of her good friends from high school was coming back after a few weeks of being ill on this day and she was so thrilled to see him again! They kept in touch over the phone, but nothing beats chatting about their shared interests in person!

Arriving at her workplace, a somehow busy fast food restaurant in the centre of the town, she parked her bike near the entrance for employees in the back of the building, hurried inside, changed into her uniform in the lockers room and went to search for her boss, because she still had some time before her shift.

As she passed men's restroom, someone opened the door quickly, nearly knocked her out, and walked away in a hurry. She looked behind the person and her face lit up.

„I-Imaizumi-kun! So you're back, I was really... huh...," she swallowed last of her words, as her friend paid absolutely no attention to her. She couldn't see his face, but it wasn't like him to ignore her this way. Maybe something made him mad? Sakamichi's brain filled with worries again. What if their boss told him he was fired? Maybe there was something she could do to save Imaizumi's ass! The boss had a soft spot for her after all.

„Oh, you're really early today, Onoda!" she heard her boss call out her name as he peeked out of his little office at the end of the corridor with his typical grin.

„G-Good morning!" she blushed a little, wondering if she should ask about what happened to Imaizumi right away. No, that will wait. First things first. „M-Makishima-san, I met Midousuji-kun last night! He said that he won't be coming ever, so here I am delivering the message. We should not expect..."

„Mooorniiing," she jumped a feet in the air as she heard a loud, somehow taunting voice right behind her. She quickly turned around to see a really tall guy standing at the door of the restroom.

„M-Midousuji-kun?!" she shrieked as if she saw a ghost.

„Are you talking nasty things about me, you silly girl? What you mean by won't be coming ever? Would you be happier if I haven't showed up? Huuuh?" He stared her down. It sent shivers up her spine.

„No... But you said yesterday...," she tried to talk back, but to no avail. She was rather perplexed by the situation that unfolded in front of her.

„Oh, so you already know each other pretty well, I see!" Makishima sighed. He was relieved. He was no good at introducing people to each other. „Sakamichi, take Midousuji with you and explain him..." His phone started to ring all of a sudden. He looked at the screen and let out a little curse before picking up. „What?! Toudou, what do you want again, I told you I was busy!" he disappeared in his office, closing the door behind him, leaving the girl and the boy alone.

Sakamichi smiled nervously. Little she knew her life was about to change slowly but surely.


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTE:**** Just a few warnings: shoujo is strong with this one; Midou being nasty to customers (and everyone else); drama intensifies and Onoda gets a bit damsel-in-distress-y**

„I'm Onoda Sakamichi! Just Sakamichi is fine! Let's work hard and get along, ok?"

Sakamichi remembered her words of kindness to the newcomer. That was a few hours ago. And there she was, explaining for the third time where he could find stuff to clean the toilets with. That was their job as well, cleaning the whole restaurant after closing hours.

„See? There are cleaning products and here you can find a mop and a bucket to..."

„Gross..."

„Well, the bucket is old and in use all the time, so it's obvious it looks like that..."

„Yeah, I can tell. That's not what I meant though," he looked at her.

„It isn't? Oh. Ok," she nodded nervously. „S-Shall I explain how to collect dirty trays from the lobby?"

„Do I look like I need to receive an explanation how to go to the disgusting lobby, pick up the gross trays and carry them back?" he stared at her with the eyes of a murderer. Or at least that's how it felt like to Sakamichi. Well, now that he mentioned it, he did look like he could use an explanation for that... or how to act normal in general. He truly had an auro of a proper weirdo. Sakamichi got immediately angry at herself for thinking such a nasty thing about her new colleague.

„No, I just wanted to make sure. I'd hate to forget anything important. But you know...," Sakamichi took a deep breath and started to explain how yesterday was supposed to be his first shift during which he had to remember as much as he could and she was there to help him, however starting today he was supposed to work on his own just like everyone else or they'd be short on staff this afternoon.

„But well, Makishima-san said you'd be cleaning the lobby today. That's really easy, but I still wanted to explain to you everything I could!"

As Midousuji was about to say some clever retort originating in the not-really-nice parts of his vocabulary, a red spiky head appeared in the doorway of the small closet for storing cleaning utensils.

„Onoda-chan, have you... oh, there you are, Dumbsuji!" Naruko growled at Sakamichi's companion.

„Oh come on, Naruko-kun," the girl frowned a little as if she was scolding her younger sibling.

Oh, she knew now, the reason why Imaizumi left so quickly without as much as saying hi to her. She'd thought before the name of Midousuji Akira rang a bell and there was a good reason for it. Midousuji was a captain of a rival bicycle racing team from Kyoto, and yep, both Imaizumi and Naruko hated the guy. She also found out that she was the only person to learn his name before his first day at work and yesterday both Naruko and Imaizumi had a day off, so there was nobody to riot against the new co-worker Midousuji Akira.

„I can't help it! Dammit, what was Makishima-san thinking, hiring a guy like that?! What are you doing over here anyway?! Did they ban your skinny ass in Kansai?! Because I can totally see that happening!" Naruko roared like one of the tigers he always wore printed on his t-shirts.

„My presence here has nothing to do with you, Naruko. But I suppose you'd know a lot about getting kicked out of Kansai, right?" Midousuji snapped back while literally snapping his back, as it made a terrible sound that made Onoda slightly sick. As if his bones and tendons broke and rattled.

„P-Please, don't fight, you two!" Onoda croaked with trembling voice. „Naruko-kun, why were you looking for Midousuji-kun?" she asked the redhead, knowing he'd calm down if he was forced to concentrate on her instead of the newbie.

„It's time for him to go and clean the freaking lobby," Naruko replied, indeed in a bit more mellow voice. A bit. Sakamichi looked at Midousuji with slight desperation in her eyes.

„Can I go too, to give him a hand for a short while?" she wondered.

„I doubt it, the Hotshot left due to severe disgust and there aren't enough people in the kitchen. Can't really blame him though," he glared at Midousuji who immediately glared back.

„I see," Onoda sighed. „Ok, I'll be going to the kitchen then, Midousuji-kun! Go and do your best!" she left with Naruko, who was supposed to be at the checkout today. Actually, he was there nearly every day, because was capable of selling a half of the menu to a customer who came in to buy a single hamburger. Onoda admired him for that skill.

As usual, things got really busy in the early afternoon, and soon enough Sakamichi was totally overwhelmed making potato fries in alarming speed. To give herself strength to keep up with hungry high schoolers who often flooded the restaurant in large numbers, she always hummed her favourite anime song. After all, Imaizumi mentioned before how rhythm was important for climbing hills and Sakamichi was pretty sure it was the same with preparing a lot of fries in a small period of time.

Due to all the noises the kitchen usually made during the busiest opening hours, she could hardly hear what was happening around the check outs, let alone in the lobby. She imagined Midousuji walking around with the dirty trays, looking extremely bizarre with the uniform on. It made her really anxious for some reason.

„Onoda, it's about time you took a break," one of her female co-workers informed her. It surprised her so much she almost burned her hand with hot frying oil. Oh yes, her break, she almost forgot about that. Normally she'd sit back in the locker room with her lunchbox and read manga she'd brought with herself, but today she felt too stressed to do something like that. Instead, she considered the option to check on Midousuji and his battle with dirty trays.

„Well, first things first," she thought for herself and headed for the toilets, but couldn't make it, because unfortunately for her poor bladder she overheard a conversation from Makishima's office. It seemed Naruko was letting their boss know what he thought about the whole Midousuji business.

„You can't be serious, Makishima-san! So what if we have little staff? I would rather do it all by myself than have that freak around! Why did you have to employ him, you know how Hotshot feels about him!" the redhead sputtered. Sakamichi had hard time figuring out what he was saying as he was spitting the words out so quickly.

„I'm not discussing it with you, Naruko. As I said, we don't have enough people, end of story. If he does a poor job, I can always fire him," Makishima shrugged, peeked at his phone that just started to ring and cut the call straight away without bothering to pick it up.

„I can't take it! Watching him creeping around the lobby is so frustrating! A little while ago he made a little girl cry! By just looking at her! I'm telling you, Makishima-san, he's going to scare away all the customers!" Naruko looked like he was about to riot. Sakamichi wondered if she should jump in the conversation and calm Naruko down, but there was no need to in the end. Naruko's break was over and he had to get back to work. However, she felt the need to apologise for her hot-headed friend.

„Makishima-san, um...," she knocked on the opened door slowly.

„Ah, Onoda. You've overheard us, haven't you," he sighed and invited her in with a wave of his palm.

„Yeah, sort of... I'm really sorry for Naruko acting like that," she apologised for the young hot-tempered boy.

„I can't really blame him. To be honest, I expected this kind of thing happening, Naruko protesting and Imaizumi running off home. That's why I kept the newcomer's name secret as long as I could," he replied. „I realise he might be bad for the business just like Naruko said. Having him around might be problematic for the atmosphere in workplace itself, but I've decided to give him a chance. Onoda, I have a favour to ask," he continued.

„Eh? A favour? What kind of favour?" Sakamichi blinked. It somehow felt as if he was about to bestow a holy mission upon her. At moments like that she felt like the Love Hime herself.

„I know it will be hard on you, but do you think you could make sure Naruko and Imaizumi don't fight with Midousuji? It feels like they will listen to you," he asked. Sakamichi stared at him and pointed at her nose.

„You mean... me?" she gasped. Makishima just nodded. „S-Sure, if that's what you want me to do. I will do my best!" Sakamichi agreed, wondering if she could pull it off. Naruko felt like a storm when he got angry and both Imaizumi and Midousuji were so tall... She wanted to ask Makishima more about the reason why he hired Midousuji, but at that point his phone began ringing again. The green haired man cursed, apologised to her and picked it up. Not wishing to eavesdrop on his private phone calls, she quickly left his office.

Sakamichi spent the rest of her break secretly watching Midousuji cleaning the lobby. He gave of a feeling of a stressed animal trapped in a cage. It would seem he walked around without any sort of purpose or order. Whenever he leaned down to clean an oily table after customers left, he trembled a bit, possibly with anger, and started muttering something for himself.

At one point customers eating at a table next to the one he was cleaning stared at him as if he was a mythical creature, took their unfinished food and left, obviously changing their plans of eating in the lobby to eating anywhere else but the terrible creature's lair. Sakamichi couldn't hear him say it, it could be that he merely moved his lips in silence, but she knew what he spelled as he started cleaning their table as well. So GROSS. It seemed he found a used bubble-gum on the tray. She had to agree, it was really gross. Some people simply had no manners.

Sakamichi was about to return to the kitchen, when she noticed a young father and a small boy passing Midousuji on their way to the counter. The boy suddenly tripped and fell to the floor. She had a bad feeling it was her colleague's doing, but decided to be optimistic and don't suspect him. He even helped the kid get up from the floor! It seemed like a really nice gesture.

„Oh oh, careful young man, we don't want you to get some gross injury," he said in rather fake, sweet voice. Sakamichi watched him, as he caressed the boy's hair, more like rubbed them really, as the boy's father apologised to Midousuji and thanked him for his help. Both the boy and the father then left to order their food.

It wasn't till later when Sakamichi stood in at checkouts for a co-worker that needed to go to the restroom that she realised what her new colleague had done. The reality hit her hard as she watched the young boy from before trying to get a bubble gum from his hair with the help of his father, who seemed really pissed off at the poor child.

„_O-Oh... He didn't... Or did he really...?_" she stared at the fighting boy, completely ignoring the customer in front of her. Naruko had to poke her with his elbow to return her to her senses. Onoda noticed Naruko was acting normal. Thank god, he hadn't noticed the incident! She was sure he'd caused uproar if he'd noticed. This way she could talk to Midousuji about it without unnecessary aggression.

She got a chance to talk to do so at the end of their shift. He nearly bumped into her as she was leaving girls' locker room.

„Be careful, would you, Sakamichiii," he scolded her, his voice full of poison.

„W-Wait, Midousuji-kun! I want to ask you something!" Onoda burst out without hesitation. If she gave it a second thought, she would never gather enough courage to ask him about the bubble-gum incident.

„What is it, Sakamichiii?" he came closer to her. Sakamichi felt goose bumps popping out on her arms.

„The... The boy that tripped over... You made it look like you caressed his hair, but you were rubbing the bubble gum in it, weren't you?" she stared at him, trying to look intimidating but an „angry puppy" look was all she could pull off.

„Oooh, so you were spying on me? What a gross girl you are, Sakamichiii, spying on your co-workers. Very very gross," he taunted her.

„I wasn't spying! I just happened to see you when you did it," she pouted, realising how much of a coincidence that would have to be.

„Let me compliment your observation skills then. It doesn't change the fact that you're a gross woman though," he hissed, leaning down to her. Sakamichi gulped. He looked really menacing.

„You're lucky Naruko didn't see you! Why did you do that? The kid did nothing wrong!" She wasn't sure if it was a good idea, scolding him like a little rascal.

„He was a small fry. Just like his father. Just like you are. He deserved it," Midousuji frowned.

„What for? It wasn't him who left the bubble gum on the tray! The other customers did."

„Well, he would leave it there as well, if he had any. That will teach him not to act gross in public," he replied. Sakamichi's eyebrows twitched at the weird logic he came up with.

„Anyway, I'm not telling anyone about it, ok? But please don't do that again, it's a nasty thing to do!" she told him with absolute resolution in her face. Midousuji glared at her, his expression absolutely blank on the other hand. Quick, she had to say something nice next. „H-How was your first day? You did a good job! Did you enjoy yourself?" Oh no, what was she trying to achieve? To sound like a good supportive colleague? As if something like that could work with him.

„Huh? Enjoy myself? GROSS! How could I enjoy myself doing such a gross job! What a gross question, Sakaaamichiii! You're not only gross, you're also very stupid, you gross woman!" he fussed. Sakamichi tightened her grip on her bag.

„The job isn't that gross ," she murmured.

„That's because you yourself are gross. I'm outta here. I don't think I'll come tomorrow. Farewell, Sakamichi," he said and disappeared. Sakamichi let out a deep sigh, either of relief or frustration, she had no idea which one it was.

Her plans for the evening were simple: eating mom's homemade food, clean a little and then watch anime episodes she missed due to her job; she organised her free time while riding her granny bike home through fields. There wasn't much traffic right now, so she felt quite safe even with her earphones on. There was only one song she could listen to right now. Her potato-fry-making theme of course. She hummed happily, her eyes fixed on the end of the road ahead.

„Hime hime..."

„Going home, Onoda?" she suddenly heard male voice on her left side.

„HIMEEEE!" Her singing changed to a loud shriek of panic as she lost control of her bike. Oh no, she was about to fall into the trench by the road.

„Careful!" the person who startled her grabbed the handlebars of her bike, keeping it steady and saving her from harm in the process. Sakamichi looked at her saviour and immediately blushed.

„Imaizumi-kun!" she yelled, taking off her earphones. „I couldn't hear you coming at all!"

„Obviously you couldn't with the earphones. It's dangerous, Onoda."

„Sorry about that," she apologised with a shy smile, then she remembered what had happened that morning. „O-Oh, are you alright? You left in hurry... You didn't even say hi."

„Yeah, my bad. I just couldn't handle the Grossuji appearing in our job. What was Makishima-san thinking, hiring a guy like him?" he wondered.

„Naruko-kun was saying the same thing. But please, try not to pick up fights with Midousuji-kun, ok? It wouldn't be good for the business," she stressed out her wish.

„I know but it's kinda hard when just seeing that guy's face makes me want to punch him so badly," Imaizumi sighed.

„I... I see. But I'm sure Midousuji-kun can't be that bad. I will make sure he behaves himself," Sakamichi said with pure resolve.

„I'd prefer if you didn't get too close to him. The guy may not seem like that, but he's totally dangerous," Imaizumi worried. The girl's cheeks reddened. Actually, Midousuji looked really dangerous to begin with. She wasn't stupid enough to ignore that, but there were things she had to do. Makishima-san asked her to do it and doing it was exactly what she planned to do.

„What's with that determined face? You look like Kotori when she decided she had to defeat the evil guys in episode forty seven," Imaizumi commented casually.

„Haha, Imaizumi-kun!" she started laughing. Imaizumi quickly grabbed her handlebars again, because her riding got wobbly once more. It was her who made him watch Love Hime, in spite of himself. Onoda knew how rare it was when he made Love Hime references, but she absolutely loved when it happened. Especially when he compared her to the heroine, Kotori.

„I'm glad you're ok though," she said when she calmed down a little. „You looked really angry when you left."

„Ok? I'm not ok at all! I had to take a hundred and seventy kilometre long ride to calm down after seeing that freak this morning. I will leave you now. See you tomorrow," he left her side and sped up. Sakamichi didn't say anything besides a seemingly happy „see you".

Well, Midousuji did mention he might not be coming back tomorrow, but she would hate to give her friend false hopes that would stay unfulfilled. Maybe they would all laugh about their one-day-weirdo-colleague the next day.

But he showed up the next day, much to Onoda's surprise and Naruko and Imaizumi's dismay. Once again he was in charge of cleaning the lobby, once again he drove Naruko mad with his unusual movement patterns and rude treating of their customers. Sakamichi tried to talk to them both, calming Naruko down and trying to talk some sense of good customer service into Midousuji, but it felt like her interventions were merely slowing down the inevitable clash of the two individuals. At least Imaizumi was trying to avoid Midousuji and if possible, ignore Midousuji's taunting he was getting in large servings.

Onoda took her job of a peace-keeper within the restaurant very seriously, but it started to take its toll on her. She often wondered why she even bothers being nice to Midousuji, when he seemed so set on acting as nasty as he could to her. No, she didn't believe he was really like that. Thinking he's just putting an act was a crucial thing in this whole peace-keeping mess, but as days went by, turned into weeks and Midousuji was still acting really nasty to everyone, her determination started to fade and she would totally give up long ago if it wasn't for her promise to their boss Makishima, who seemed to have some problem on his own with the person that kept calling him all the time.

Sakamichi went as far as making sure she dropped by the restaurant even on her days off, if Naruko and Midousuji were both at work on that day. She always made a silly excuse, pretending to be out shopping for new manga to read, but no one really bought that and Imaizumi commented how the restaurant isn't paying them well enough for her excuse of constant manga shopping to actually work.

It was the same case that evening. Both Naruko and Midousuji had an afternoon shift, when she entered in the restaurant, prepared to say she was out with her mom and decided to drop by to say hello. She froze as soon as she opened the door though.

For the first time ever she could see Midousuji on a checkout right next to Naruko, who looked like he was about to go ballistic. She could only imagine Midousuji trying to sell things for others, no, she didn't even wish to imagine something like that. After all, there was a good reason why they never let him sell food. His treatment of customers during his cleaning shifts was speaking for itself. As she could see them there, side by side, she faced a terrible dilemma. Whom she would order food from?

No matter what option she'd go with, it was a no win situation. If she ordered from Midousuji, he would laugh at Naruko, humiliating him with nasty words. If she ordered from Naruko, Midousuji would do the same thing to her! She ended up ignoring them and sitting at a table furthest from the counter. She pulled out a volume of some manga from her bag and pretended reading while observing the situation not-so-sneakily. The restaurant was nearly empty so it was a matter of time till one of them asked her to order.

It didn't come to that, though. The entrance door opened again and a group of young boys entered the restaurant. It was hard to tell exactly how old they where, could be anything from fourteen to eighteen, but it was unlikely they were older than Onoda. They assembled at the counter, ordering food from Midousuji, because Naruko left for the restroom a few moments before. When they got their stuff, they stood in the lobby for a while, wondering where they should sit. At that point, Onoda was trying her hardest to discover her hidden powers to turn invisible, because that's what she could use at the situation she found herself in.

The group of loud boys noticed her, walked towards her table and gathering around her, they trapped her in a corner.

„Hey, aren't you a bit lonely, sitting here in a corner?" one of the guys asked her. He leaned dangerously close. His clothes reeked of cigarettes.

„N-Not really," she shook her head, trying to hide her manga into her bag.

„Huh, what are you reading? Isn't it manga? Hey, are you one of those rotten nerdy girls?" another of the boys asked.

„N-No, I'm not," she shook her head once more. Well, she was a bit nerdy, but she wouldn't call herself rotten, certainly not.

„And why is it you don't have anything to eat? Don't you have money? Or maybe you're a creepy stalker that is here to spy on that lovely tall guy behind the counter? Girl, you have some weird sense of aesthetics, you know that?"

„It's not like that!" Sakamichi panicked. Oh god, why would she even come there today! What a stupid idea that was! „P-Please give my manga back!" she whined as one of the boys took her comic book and accidentally spilled ketchup over it.

„Say, are you a virgin?" the smelly boy asked her, pressing himself against her tiny frame.

„W-What?" Sakamichi's head was about to explode, what kind of question that was?

„Oh come on, don't be shy. You know what I.. ugh!" he gasped in the middle of a sentence as someone grabbed his shirt and jerked him away from Onoda as if he was a children's toy.

It took the girl a while to realise what was happening around her. She saw Midousuji standing at the end of the table, his height being taller than any of the boys, and to her surprise he was holding the smelly guy's face in one of his bony hands while taking potato fries with the other and, oh no, sticking them into the guy's face.

„You gross small fry... Why don't you shut your face and eat your disgusting potato fries, hmm?" Midousuji glared at the youngster while continuing to fill his face with the salty potato sticks.

„Oh fuck, it's a psycho!" the other boys yelled in horror and left the fast food as if their lives depended on it. Such good friends they were, Sakamichi wondered in a fraction of a second, but she was the one to talk! She'd run herself if she could actually move. Seeing Midousuji force feeding the guy while he was squealling like a piglet really scared her. She should probably do something!

„Mi... Midousuji-kun, you shouldn't...," she opened her mouth slowly, but her intervention was not needed at all. Naruko stormed into the lobby, grabbed Midousuji's uniform and tore him away from the kid. The boy fell to the floor, spitted out all the fries he couldn't swallow and ran away in tears.

„What the fuck, Stupidsuji!" Naruko screamed. „What the actual fuck?! Is this how you treat customers?! Are you out of your mind?! They could call the police! You fucking asshole!" He pushed Midousuji against the table and started throwing punches at him. The taller boy got startled by the surprise attack, but recovered quickly and punched the redhead back. Before Sakamichi knew, they were punching each other as if they were characters in some fighting game.

„G-Guys! Stop it! Please!" Sakamichi jumped on her feet and tried to pull them apart. Luckily for the petite girl, neither of them was so enraged that they had no idea what was going on. They figured Sakamichi got between them and for this one time, it actually worked. She stopped them from fighting, even though it was a real gamble.

„You're fucked! I'm so telling Makishima-san, you fucking newt!" Naruko hissed at Midousuji, as he was picking himself up from the floor.

„Whatever, grosshead," Midousuji spitted back and with a glance in Onoda's direction, he turned away and left the lobby in haste.

„W-Wait, Midousuji-kun!" Onoda called after him. Was he planning to run away from his job or what?

„Leave him be, Onoda-chan," Naruko growled. „We're better off without him anyway." He wiped his face with a sleeve of his uniform. He had a nosebleed. „What a shithead, terrorizing a customer like that..."

Onoda bit her lower lip.

„_It wasn't quite like that, Naruko-kun... Midousuji-kun... He actually..._"

Thoughts were spinning in her head, making her slightly dizzy. Was it just her imagination or did Midousuji actually protect her just now?


	3. Chapter 3

**Note****: ****I apologise, but shoujo is even stronger in this chapter; Midou and Sakamichi spend a lot of time in a field at night for no reason whatsoever; drama intensifies; a new character appears; and there's a dead slug. Sorry about that.**

Sakamichi sat on a bus home, staring out of the window mindlessly. Her brain still had problems to grasp what happened a little while ago in her work. She was pretty much over the situation with the unknown boys. Being used to bullying due to her hobbies, she couldn't care less about the silly kids teasing her like that. The things that came after were what made her oh-so-troubled.

The guy might have deserved it, but still attacking a customer like that wasn't good. Naruko was right to jump at Midousuji at that moment, but Sakamichi wasn't sure if the actual fist fight was necessary. However, it was surely inevitable. To be honest, she was surprised Naruko could hold himself for the past few weeks. What if he was going to tell Makishima for real? Onoda tried her best to calm him down and talk him out of the idea as she was cleaning the blood from his face, but she knew herself Midousuji really crossed the line this time. She couldn't even keep it secret like that time with the bubble gum in the kid's hair, because Naruko saw what had happened. Well, not that it mattered. She'd be really surprised if Midousuji appeared in the work again after the brawl.

Still, it wasn't what troubled her the most. It was just a coincidence, right? Midousuji helped her – no, that was simply too unlikely. The boy who was annoying Onoda like a fly probably seemed a bit grosser in Midousuji's eyes than she did. Surely that's why he grabbed him and started to... what the hell that even was. She could easily call it molesting, but no, she wouldn't do that, it would be just GROSS.

The main problem was the itsy-bitsy fact she was on the verge of giving up covering him in front of the others, especially Naruko, because Midousuji kept proving he was certainly a villain of this chapter in her life. Nevertheless, now she wasn't so sure anymore. What if he really tried to protect her?

Sakamichi hypnotized white line marking on the side of the road, or maybe it was the never-ending line hypnotizing her, who knows. She found it strangely soothing. She didn't have to pay any attention to anything besides her own thoughts. However, the spell lifted as soon as her view of the line marking got blocked by a person on a bike. The girl twitched on her seat.

"Imaizumi-kun? N-No, wait!" she blinked in surprise as she realised it was no one else than her colleague Midousuji Akira, the guy she'd thought she would never see again after this evening.

Sakamichi had no idea how fast he was going. The bus passed him quite easily, but she still felt like he was pedalling really fast. She got up on her feet almost instinctively as if she was about to do something extremely stupid, for example jumping out of the running bus. Her actions were quite thoughtful though. The vehicle was approaching a bus stop in the middle of the field, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It took a bit more detailed observation to notice a narrow dusty road connecting the bus stop with a bunch of houses on the other side of the field.

She got off and when the bus pulled away, she found herself surrounded by darkness. It was around nine o'clock and the sky was cloudy and without any trace of stars. It scared her a little. What if Midousuji wasn't coming? Maybe it was just her hallucination caused by the damn line-marking-hypnosis? On the other hand, what if he WAS coming? That option seemed just as scary to the poor girl with glasses.

Oh no, she could hear it now, the smooth purring of spinning wheels. Oh no... There he was! He appeared at the nearest curve of the road. She couldn't exactly see him, all she could see was an approaching beam of light, but she knew what kind of sounds road racers made very well.

Oh, he was going really fast! Onoda had to act quickly or else he'd pass her without noticing her.

"G-Good evening!" she made a long step from the side of the road. Not really into his way, but her action was sudden enough to startle him, even though he was still a few tens of meters away. Screeching of brakes cut through the rustling early summer atmosphere like a knife. Sakamichi was second guessing her idea surprising him like that, worried he would fall because of the sudden loss of speed, but he was really experienced rider and managed to stop his bike rather gracefully, at least in the conditions the silly girl prepared for him.

"GROSS!" he shrieked as soon as he placed his eyes on her. "What are you doing, you dumb girl! Appearing out of nowhere, GROSS! What the fuck even are you? A tanuki?!"

Yeah, he was mad. Sakamichi was contemplating running down the dusty path to the solitary group of houses just to ask for help or a shelter.

"BE GONE, GROSS, GROSS!" he cursed at her, then without uttering any other words, he just jumped on his bike, made a hundred and eighty degree turn and pedalled away, disappearing at the curve of the road where he'd come from.

"O-Oh...," Sakamichi stood there all alone, unsure what had just happened. He left! He simply left. What an unexpected twist of events. No, it was probably expected. Any sane person would freak out and run away if someone surprised them as she did. Then again, Midousuji wasn't a regular sane person, was he?

Now that she thought of it properly, what a splendid and genius idea that was. She should feel lucky he didn't slap her or something. On top of that, the bus was gone and the next one would take an hour to get there. It's not like she was far from home, only three more bus stops to go, but walking all the way in the dark didn't seem agreeable at all as long as she was in the fields without any streetlights to illuminate the road.

"That was so clever of me," she sighed quietly. Mage, a cute but really serious sheep character from Love Hime anime appeared in her mind, scolding her the same way he always scolded Kotori, the cute but reckless heroine. Well, there was no point in standing there any longer. By the time the next bus comes, she will be taking a hot bath back at home, trying to drown her worries in the process.

Normally she'd put on her earphones and listen to her favourite music if she found herself on this road during the day, but in this situation she wanted to have her senses clear so she could hear what was happening around her.

She would lie to herself if she pretended she wasn't scared at all. Not of ghosts or anything, no. She might be childish at times, but she wasn't a child anymore. Her clothes were dark coloured and there was the possibility a passing car could hit her, so she planned to prevent that by jumping right into the field if she could hear a vehicle coming. Or, another possibility, a car's driver would see her; he'd stop by her side and offer her a ride home. For free, of course. Of course... More reasons to jump into the field and stay unseen!

It took only a few minutes till she heard a car coming from behind. She could swear there was some fight theme from Love Hime soundtrack playing in her head as she willingly fell into the trench alongside the road, crouching there. As soon as the car passed, she was glad she did so, even though she'd thought of her decision as overreaction. It wasn't a small car; it was a rather large truck. She'd be definitely in trouble if she stayed on the road. Sticking out her head from the trench, Sakamichi watched the red rear lights as they got smaller. Oh, she felt so cool, avoiding the truck like that! It would be even cooler if she made some sort of somersault into the trench, but she wasn't particularly good at sports, so she decided her fall was passable. Now just to get out of the...

"Ooh, what are you doing down there, you gross small fry?"

Sakamichi let out a terrified shriek and fell back down the trench. The truck made so much noise she couldn't hear anything else (besides the Love Hime soundtrack playing in her head). She had no idea he came back!

Midousuji was leaning against handlebars of his bike, watching the girl struggle in the dirt and various floras. He surely seemed entertained.

"M-Midousuji-kun! I didn't expect you to come back!" she shined as soon as she managed to get back on the road.

"I didn't come back. Why would you think I came back? For you? You silly Sakamichiii. In fact, I happen to be going somewhere and this happens to be shortest way to get there," he told her, giving her a very peculiar look.

"Well, you still came back," was what the girl thought for herself, but there was no way she would say it aloud. She valued her life after all. Besides that, she didn't want to scare him away once more.

"You haven't replied to my question, Sakamichiii, although I question myself why would I even ask something so gross, but it can't be helped, I'm simply too curious! What were you doing in the trench?" he asked her again.

"The car came and I didn't want to get pushed off the road nor be seen by the driver, so I jumped down," she replied with such sincerity it was nearly devastating for Midousuji's venom. He stared at her for a few seconds.

"Why didn't you want to be seen?" he wondered, but he could figure out the answer himself.

"Oh... You know, what if some perverted old man saw me and stopped his car and then bad things would happen...," she blushed. She had a feeling she knew what was coming and it sure as hell did for real.

"GROSS! You think a guy would actually stop and want to do gross things to you? Have you ever looked in a mirror, Sakamichiii? There's nothing about you that could be described as attractive. You don't even have any boobs," he said and sounded really evil while saying it.

Onoda took a deep breath, ready to tell him she didn't feel ugly at all and there were boobies on her chest, a pretty cute pair, thank you very much, but it's not like he would ever know because she usually wore rather baggy clothes. On the second thought, it wasn't her habit to fight back like that, unless it was really important to her.

"Well, perverted old men are old and I'm young, so I think I might get in trouble anyway," she shrugged. Midousuji stared at her some more. Was he trying to come up with another nasty remark?

"Why are you even here, in the middle of nowhere, jumping at me all of a sudden?" he asked, surprising both Sakamichi and himself, as it sounded quite normal. Not venomous at all.

"I saw you from the bus on my way home so I decided to get off and say hi! Yeah, now I know it was very stupid of me," she explained. "The road is really dangerous at night."

"Just so you know, I'm not walking you home, Sakamichiii," he informed her. Except that's exactly what he was doing now. Sakamichi started walking slowly along the road and the tall boy got off his bike, pushing it next to him as he strode beside her.

"I'm not asking you to, Midousuji-kun!" she shook her head.

"Good. I just said it because I wanted to make it clear before you get some wrong and gross idea," he snorted. Sakamichi was so glad it was dark. Her cheeks started to blush a little. It was safer to keep it secret from him. After a few steps, she gathered all her courage and asked him:

"A-Are you alright? I mean, after the fight with Naruko-kun."

"Groooooss," he whined. "Did you expect me to get hurt or something, gross Sakamichiii?"

"Well, Naruko had a nosebleed, so I thought that maybe you got hurt too," she clarified quickly.

"No way the grosshead could hurt me. He punches like a little kid. To be honest it's shocking he is the same age as me. Just look at his gross image," Midousuji pouted.

"Oh. Ok then," she nodded, looking in front of her. Maybe she was scared to look at him. She just took a shy peek at his bike. She'd noticed it before, the frame was very small. Speaking of Naruko looking like a little kid, it left her wondering if Midousuji's bike was even a type designed for adults.

"Can I have a question?" she asked slowly.

"No, it's too gross," he replied lazily. Sakamichi bit her lower lip. Just this time, she decided to go ahead and ask anyway.

"Your bike... the frame looks really small; wouldn't you do better with one more suited for your height?"

"I said no," he hissed. Onoda looked down on tips of her shoes. It was a bad idea to ask him after all, but she couldn't help her curiosity about the strange fact. "Besides, this bike is fine as it is," he added to her surprise.

"I see," she blinked. "It's really tiny, so I guess you've had it for a long time, am I right?"

"Grooooooss," he sang. "Girls that think they know stuff about bikes are gross. Why do you know these things, Sakamichi? Why are you so gross, Saaakaaamiiichiii?" Sakamichi frowned a little. She had no idea what was so gross about that.

"I was a manager of Souhoku's bicycle racing club my last year of high school so I know the absolute basics," she explained, only to get another serving of groooooss from him.

Without notice, they reached the first street light at the edge of the village. Sakamichi stopped and it seemed it surprised him a little. He looked at her with a scary grin showing his perfect teeth.

"Um... T-Thank you for walking me so far," Onoda started, avoiding his eyes.

"SAKAMICHIII! I wasn't walking you to your gross home, you know? Stop sounding like I was! That's gross!" he yelled. Onoda waved her arms in panic. He was a bit too loud!

"Ah... Yeah, I know," she nodded. "But still, I want to thank you. It was scary to walk alone. With you I felt safe," she told him, her cheeks turning bright red in the process. Did she really say that? For real?

Did she really _mean_ that?

"You're saying some disgusting things as always, Sakamichiii," he scoffed at her.

"A-About tomorrow... please come to work, ok? I will sort things out with Naruko-kun and Makishima-san. I'm sure if I properly explain what happened, Makishima-san will let it slide. Even Naruko-kun will change his mind if I tell him you actually protected me..."

"I didn't protect you," he interrupted her sternly. "The guy was making me sick, that's why I messed with him a little. He got what he deserved."

"M-Maybe. But... But that way you stopped him from pestering me, so...," she gulped. Was she going to say some more? What the hell was she even doing? "S-So I'd like to think of it as if you really helped me."

"Sakamichiii," he said her name. She expected more ridicule of her naïve behaviour. His words caught her unprepared nevertheless. "There's a really gross slug in your hair," he continued casually.

"W-WHAT?" she jumped, her hands trembling as she tried to find where exactly in her shoulder length hair it was.

"Here, pfft pffft," he snorted with laughter and removed a really big slug from a strand of hair around her left temple.

"O-Oh... Why couldn't I feel it...," the girl moaned in frustration, but it was no surprise. After all, conversations with Midousuji took a lot of concentration, making her easily forget about other things. "I wonder how it got there? P-Probably in the trench? Yeah, that must be it, uhm," she mumbled as she searched her clothes for more slimy friends. She really found more. One on the back of her skirt, the other on her right sleeve.

"You seem to attract a lot of gross things, Sakamiichiii," he commented, holding the slug from her hair between his long fingers and squishing it a little as if it was a jelly bear.

"You mean slugs?" Onoda looked at him.

"Not only slugs. Your friends are really gross too and there was the group of stupid boys earlier this evening. I guess you're that kind of person?" he teased her. Sakamichi kept silent about it. Instead, she just observed his face carefully.

"Midousuji-kun," she finally opened her mouth. As she was about to say more, she lifted her hand unconsciously and pressed her fingertips against slightly bluish tinge under his left eye. Seeing it in the streetlight, it was clear he had quite a big bruise on his cheek. "You did get hurt in the fight!" Sakamichi told him and sounded very worried for some reason.

Midousuji said nothing. He just gazed at her as if she just committed a crime against humanity. His right hand squished the innocent slug so hard a nasty yellow stuff came out of it, while his left snatched her small fingers and jerked them away, crushing them in his large palm so hard the girl let out a little whimper of pain.

Realising he was hurting her from the expression on her face, he eased the squeeze on her fingers instinctively. He had no idea why. He was ok with hurting people, she was surely no exception and yet, there he was, his long bony fingers twisted around her short and slender ones in a way that was anything but cruel and painful. It felt like his brain blacked out for a few moments. He just stood there with his bike leaning against his legs, creating some sort of wall between their bodies, he was holding the girl's hand in a rather gross manner, staring into her big, puppy-like eyes, and feeling quite alright with what was going on.

It was... serene. It was fairly enjoyable too.

That is, until she opened her mouth to say something. He had no idea what the girl was about to say, he just knew he didn't want to hear it. His brain rebooted itself and the magic was all gone. He let go of her hand, threw the dead slug right in her face and yelled at her.

"GROSS! SO GROSS! GROSS!"

Onoda stared as he was rubbing his eyes with his hands. She'd never seen him freak out so much before and to be honest, it scared her to the point she didn't even mind the slug's leftovers on her cheek.

"M-Midousuji-kun, stop," she tried to talk him out of his fuss, but it didn't work at all. Her voice seemed to make it even worse. She watched him grab his bike, jump on it, turn around once again and disappear in the dark field just like the first time. It took a while till the muted screams of disgust died down completely.

Unsure, what exactly just occurred, she wiped the slug's green stuff from her cheek and finally headed home. She really needed one long, scalding bath.

Onoda could barely sleep that night because of all the crazy happenings of the evening. The next day she went to job with black bags under her eyes and uneasy stomach. Naruko, who was supposed to have a shift with her, took a day off. Sakamichi was glad, somehow. At least she had a chance to talk to Makishima before he did.

As soon as she appeared in the restaurant, Makishima called for her. It turned out he'd already heard what had happened from Imaizumi, whom Naruko called the last night. She did her very best to explain what happened, making it sound as innocent as she could. She stressed out the fact the guys were sort of bullying her and although Makishima looked at her as if she attempted to transform into a magical girl on the spot, he somehow gave up to her sincere eyes and agreed not to do anything this time. He warned her, however, that he would definitely fire Midousuji if an incident like that happened again.

Happy about diverting (or more like postponing) Midousuji's sacking, she walked into the kitchen, just to bump into the villain himself. A flashback about the last night ran through her mind and she immediately turned bright red. Wondering what she should say to him about everything, she started with a good morning, because it was hard to go wrong with a simple greeting. Midousuji looked at her for a few, seemingly never-ending seconds and muttered his usual commentary about every other thing. Then, he proceeded to prepare some potato fries as if nothing happened.

Onoda stood there as if she froze in time, but eventually smiled for herself. He was back to normal, good. She didn't care if he planned to act all nasty from now on. After all, she knew very well now he wasn't bad at all.

A week after his fight with Naruko, Midousuji and Onoda finally had a shift at the counter at the same time, replacing Naruko and Imaizumi as the two boys were going home.

"What a total bummer," Naruko whined as he watched the two weirdoes at the checkouts from the kitchen. Imaizumi managed to keep his anger about the lanky boy contained. He was really trying his best.

"Yeah, they will be lucky if they sell anything today," Imaizumi sighed. Boys then left work arguing who sold more hamburgers that day.

True. Onoda wasn't really good at selling food, she stuttered too much and people avoided her because it was pain in the backside to order from her. And Midousuji... Well, just one look at him made people turn around and leave the place.

As Imaizumi had predicted, they had problems selling food that evening. Customers didn't even bother to enter the restaurant. Just one look through windows made them go elsewhere. Onoda and Midousuji therefore spent time just standing there, talking about random things. Or, Onoda was talking about random things. All the boy did was mumbling how gross the random things were.

Occasionally, customers did come. Sakamichi currently watched a situation happening at Midousuji's checkout. A girl who was clearly still a preschooler stood at the counter, trying to buy some ice cream. Midousuji was leaning all the way over the damn machine with his long body, his face only a foot away from the girl's head.

How the hell the kid didn't run for her life was beyond Sakamichi's understanding. On top of that, the girl actually looked like she was enjoying the weird long boy talking to her.

"So. Once again, small fry. What do you waaant?" he cackled at the small girl, making a "clank" sound with his teeth.

"D-Don't, you will scare her away!" Sakamichi whispered.

"Huuuh, it sounds like someone is talking without being spoken to! Gross!" he hissed, turning his head as if he couldn't see her and was trying to find where her voice came from.

"Ahaha!" the small girl laughed. "You're funny, big bro!"

"Ok. So for the fifth time. What. Do. You. Want. You ugly little spawn of evil?" he asked and leaned even further forward. Sakamichi looked at his feet. he wasn't standing on the floor anymore. He was somehow hanging over the counter, supporting himself with his arms only.

"I want, um..., you see... The cup so you can see what's inside," the girl described. For the fifth time.

"So you mean the gross plastic one, right?" he goggled his eyes of a dead fish at her.

"No, not that. I want the one that you can eat," the girl lisped.

"So you mean the one in a wafer cone...," he pouted.

"Yes, yes! That. But the one you can see through," she grinned.

"GROSS! GROSS! I can't do this anymore! This is so gross! What's with the brat!" Midousuji yelled, started rubbing his eyes due to frustration and was out of the picture for a while.

"Um, I'm afraid we don't have that. Only the one you can see through or the one you can eat," Onoda explained to the laughing girl. For some reason, she found Midousuji incredibly funny.

"But... I had a bet with my big sis! I win if I bring her see through one that I can eat!" the kid frowned.

"I'm sorry," Sakamichi apologised with a sad expression.

"That's baaad," the girl sobbed.

"W-Wait, I'll come up with something!" Onoda panicked. Seeing the crying kid was too much for her. She had no idea how to deal with kids in general, not to mention crying ones. If possible, she wanted to avoid any tears.

Unsure, what exactly she was trying to do, she took both a plastic cup and a wafer cone, crushed the cone into the cup and poured the ice cream all over it. Then she handed it to the child with a bright smile.

"It might not be what your big sis wants, but you can always eat it yourself!" she told her. The little girl laughed again, thanked her and ran away with the custom ice cream.

"Gross," Midousuji commented as he watched Sakamichi wipe her hands with a tissue.

"Yeah, some of it got on my hands," she nodded.

"No, not that. You realise the gross brat haven't paid for it, right?"

"O-Oh... You're right!" Sakamichi stuttered with dismay.

Their conversation got cut in the middle as an unusually attractive young man entered the empty restaurant. His clothes seemed to be both fashionable and really pricy and he was wearing sunglasses. Onoda turned completely red when the man started walking straight to her checkout.

"Hell... o... what... do you want?" she asked in horror, knowing it probably wasn't the most polite thing to say, but her throat wasn't really responding. Midousuji watched the guy with squinted eyes.

"Hello, you! Oh my, you poor thing...," the man sighed, throwing the poor employee into confusion. Why was she a poor thing? Because she was working in a fast food restaurant? What? "You may have pretty eyes, but other than that, what is the person thinking, letting you sell food? And I'm not even talking about your friend!" he continued.

"What do you want?" Midousuji asked as if the handsome guy offended him.

"Good that you're asking, young man! I want a vegetable salad and Maki-chan," the eccentric customer laughed.

"U-Um... I'm sorry, but what... is Maki-chan? I don't think we sell that...," Onoda jumped in before Midousuji could express his disgust.

"Oh, of course you're not selling that! No money in the whole world...," he was explaining, but at that moment boss Makishima appeared in the lobby.

"Onoda, could you please ask Naruko if he could come a bit earlier the day after tomorrow? I need something to...," the green haired boss told the girl.

"MAKI-CHAN!" the weird customer yelled so loudly Sakamichi nearly got a heart attack as he startled her with his just-a-little-annoying voice.

"Oh god, Toudou, what the hell are you doing here! I told you to never show your face in this place!" Makishima cried in despair.

Oh, so that was that Toudou person Sakamichi heard so much about!


	4. Chapter 4

**Note:**** More silly shoujo tropes and clichés; Ms. Onoda being a damn voyeur; lots of kimos. Also, wow, rating jumps a bit higher with this chapter. Too bad it's only nsfw Toumaki, not Midosaka... for now.**

Makishima looked all but happy when his so-called friend appeared. The handsome guy, Toudou, sounded like Makishima was his best friend for life. Makishima, however, sounded like this guy was the biggest nuisance to ever grace this Earth. Or, this particular fast food restaurant at least.

After a few minutes of bickering in the lobby, they moved to Makishima's office, bickered some more and then Makishima ran away, telling Onoda to look after the place and lock it at the end of her shift if he doesn't make it back by that time.

"Yes, look after the place for us, Little Glasses!" the Toudou person laughed, waved at the confused girl and followed facepalming Makishima out of the building.

Onoda watched as the front door closed behind them and then giggled to herself. Reaction to that little giggle of hers came quickly.

"What are you giggling about, Sakamichi, that's gross," Midousuji commented.

"I'm sorry, it's just... He said my eyes are pretty! What a nice person," she smiled, her cheeks adorned with soft pink tinge. Midousuji squinted his eyes. He didn't like how happy she seemed about it. He had to do something to bring her down as soon as possible.

"What a naïve girl you are, Sakamichi. He was just being polite! Your gross eyes are nothing special. I'd say they're below average at best," he pouted. Sakamichi looked at him with a slightly disappointed expression. Her eyes might be below average, but her direct gaze surprised him.

"I-I think it depends on the person? I mean... Y-You may not like my eyes, but he did, maybe. Or at least that's what I believe," she pouted back, what a cheeky girl!

"It's just your imagination, Saaakamichiii," he told her with cryptic aura surrounding him. "There's a good reason as to why you're still a disgusting virgin."

"I-I'm not a...," Sakamichi raised her voice in upset. Midousuji didn't let her finish the sentence.

"What? Virgin? Really, Sakamichiii? You're not a virgin? What a gross thing to do, lying..."

"N-No, I mean... I'm not talking to you about such things!" she blushed.

"Oh. So you are...," he taunted her. "You are, in fact, an inexperienced little virgin." Midousuji laughed, although it sounded like he accidentally breathed in a fly. His colleague avoided his eyes, trying her best to ignore him. It wasn't his business anyway, her virginity or sexual experience.

To keep herself occupied, she grabbed a wet cloth and started cleaning the counter. The lobby was totally empty.

"Say, Sakamichiii," Midousuji told her after a few minutes of watching her.

"Y-Yeah?" she blinked at him, trying to figure out the best possible defence against his verbal harassment.

"I find it really gross how you're trying to be nice to everybody. Why are you like that?" he asked her. Onoda stopped wiping the counter and stared at him in surprise. Was he really asking her that? Who are you and what you've done to Midousuji-kun? That's what immediately popped out in her head.

"I-I just like being kind to people who are nice to me, I guess?" she shrugged. She wasn't sure herself. Then again, why would she of all people be nasty to anyone? It wasn't in her character at all.

"Kind? There's no such thing as kindness, Sakamichiii. People are merely showing what they call kindness to those whom they want to leave a good impression on. It's not kindness or anything. It's a pure, gross calculation," he objected.

"Eh... Is that what you think? I wonder if it's really like that?" Sakamichi scratched her chin, not noticing the boy coming closer.

"Well, why else would you act all nice to me? So stupid, Sakamichi. So gross... Even though I laugh at you all the time...," he frowned. Sakamichi realised he was quite close now. It made her take a little step back.

"Um... I think it's obvious! I'm being nice to you, because... eh... despite of your taunting and cruel words, you are actually a really nice guy. So I don't care what you think about me, I just want to be nice to you for that reason only...," she stuttered and hoped it made sense.

"GROSS!" he spited in her face while yelling. "Where did you get the disgusting idea I was a good guy?"

"I-Isn't that obvious? You helped me with the bullies and then you... almost walked me home and...," Onoda stopped, remembering the weird situation when he held her hand for a brief moment. She still had no idea what to make of it and thus decided not to mention it. "A-And altogether I have a feeling you're... really nice, you know." She finished her sentence, grabbed the cloth again and continued cleaning the counter. She could feel Midousuji was about to let her taste some bitter medicine about her opinion of him, but thankfully it was prevented by two young couples.

As if he forgot about it, Midousuji didn't say anything about this conversation. Not once the couples were gone, but he also kept silent for the rest of their shift. That night the two of them were the ones who should clean the whole place after closing hours. They were supposed to stay in the restaurant till 2 o'clock in the morning, just the two of them.

Sakamichi worried it could get troublesome, but to her surprise the lanky boy wasn't even protesting about the work too much. They split work that had to be done equally and carried out their duties separately. If it wasn't for noises and commentaries Midousuji made while cleaning, Onoda would presume she's all alone in the restaurant.

Yeah, all alone... That's was the problem. Makishima told her to look after the place till he got back. Their shift was about to end in fifteen minutes, but there were still no signs of Makishima returning. Well, he also told her not to wait for him and just lock the place, so she supposed it was alright to simply leave when their shift was over.

"M-Midousuji-kun," she called after him when he passed her in the corridor on his way to men's lockers.

"Huh?" he looked at her, slightly annoyed that she was bothering him.

"I... I have to lock the restaurant and... I've never done it before, do you think you could help me?" she asked him hoping he'd say yes.

"No, I don't want to. Boss gave this job to you, gross Sakamichi. Not me. So leave me alone. Niiiight," he croaked. As usual, he sounded like he was making fun of her. Then, he just left, leaving the girl all alone and slightly disappointed.

She decided to take one last look to make sure everything was clean. Walking around the restaurant, she could find no traces of dirt anywhere so she left the lobby quite happy about their job.

As she was walking towards the Makishima's office to pick up the keys to lock the place down, she noticed the door was slightly opened and there was a thin beam of light coming from inside. There was someone in there! Her insides twisted painfully. Was it her tall, weirdo colleague? Makishima? Or was it, by any chance, a burglar?

"M-Midou... suji-kun?" she mumbled really quietly and approached the beam of light, peeking carefully inside the office. It wasn't Midousuji or any kind of intruder whom she saw in the room.

Indeed, Makishima got back. She was about to knock on the door when another person appeared in her view through the narrow opening. It was Toudou! He was still around. Onoda wanted to tell them she's leaving, but she got caught in the quick progress of events.

Makishima was sitting on the edge of his desk and Toudou pretended to be taken by photos on the wall. That is, until the moment he suddenly came closer to the sitting man and pressed his own body against Makishima's as if it was the most natural thing ever. He leaned in for a kiss, but changed his mind in the last second and instead brought his lips to Makishima's ear. Onoda couldn't see what he was doing there, but a whimper escaping from her boss's mouth hinted he most likely nibbled on his earlobe.

"Stop it, Toudou. Not here," Makishima protested but he didn't really mean it. His hands were embracing Toudou's chest tenderly.

"No one's coming, Maki-chan. You said so yourself, the place was locked, right? They left already," Toudou told him in soothing voice.

Onoda fidgeted behind the door. Locked? Did Midousuji lock her in? Oh, she'd be so scared if she found out! But she didn't, and now wasn't the right time to think about that. Sakamichi was barely standing on her feet at the sight of what was happening behind the not-really-closed door. She stared as the handsome guy caressed her boss's chest and kissed the left side of his throat.

"T-Toudou, we shouldn't...," Makishima mumbled again and ran his long fingers through Toudou's hair.

"You say that, but you don't really mean that, do you, Maki-chan," Toudou laughed smugly.

"Shut up," Makishima hissed as Toudou started to unbutton his shirt.

"Ah, Maki-chan, I waited so long for this," he moaned and covered Makishima's bared chest with kisses. "You never visit me," he complained.

"I'm telling you, I'm busy all the time," the green-haired man objected and watched his lover kiss the axis of his body, reaching all the way down to his navel.

"I'm telling you! If you took the offer and did some modelling with me, we could even live together. You could do at least that much if you don't plan to race ever again. You're wasting time in this place," Toudou said in-between kisses and licks.

"I've told you I'm not discussing this with you," Makishima frowned and pulled Toudou's dark hair to punish him a little.

"I-It's... B-Boys love...," Onoda thought for herself.

Ah yes, the infamous boys love! She wasn't into it as much as some of the other female fans of anime, but there was no way she could stop spying on them, was there. Two hot guys getting intimate with each other, it was like she was dreaming! She even realised her body was reacting to the sight. Her mouth watered a little and she had a really weird feeling in her lower belly.

Meanwhile, Toudou got on his knees in front of the green-haired man and swiftly unbuckled his belt, pulled down his trousers and looked at the bulge in Makishima's boxers. He smiled at him happily.

"Maki-chan, it seems you couldn't wait either," he droned and without any warning, he buried his face right into his lover's crotch.

"Kuhaa! Stop it, it's weird, Toudou!" Makishima shrieked.

"I can't help it, Maki-chan," he hummed with a mischievous smile and nuzzled his face to Makishima's bulge.

"A-At least take my damn pants off and do something erotic! Don't just cuddle my dick through my boxers!"

"But I love cuddling your dick, Maki-chan. And besides, we can take all the time we want, so let me enjoy my reunion with Junior, my sweetheart."

"Oh god, at least don't call it Junior!" Makishima pushed his face away. It was too embarrassing.

"_I... I see! Makishima-san and Toudou-san are lovers! That's why he never blocked his number even though he was annoyed about all the phone calls_," Onoda thought for herself, having a slight eureka moment.

She pushed her glasses up her nose and brushed her cheek with her fingers. Oh, her face was practically on fire and it got even worse when Toudou buried his fingers into the fabric of the other man's undies and pulled them down, revealing the erected member hidden in them.

Oh no, she... she was looking at her boss's willy! Sakamichi was honestly surprised that she didn't bleed from her nose all over her uniform like an anime character. It didn't help that she always thought Makishima was cool and quite handsome.

Toudou carefully placed his fingers around Makishima's penis, stroked it a little and gave it a small peck.

"Long time no see," he smirked. The pale cheeks of the other man grew totally red and he quickly hid his face in the palms of his hands.

"Stop, it's really awkward," he whined.

"It isn't, Maki-chan, hmmm...," Toudou hummed and ran the tip of his nose through Makishima's pubes. Onoda was stunned at the display of affection. Toudou was obviously so happy to be with her boss at this moment.

"I see you don't dye them green anymore," the kneeling man commented.

"Yeah, it was a pain in the ass," Makishima admitted.

"Shall I help you? I liked it green," Toudou offered. Makishima gave him a scorning look.

"No. It was literally a pain in the ass. I messed up with the dye once," he muttered. Toudou winked in surprise and then smiled gently.

"Well, I like it jet-black just as much..."

All this time, he was innocently playing with his cock, caressing it, stroking it, occasionally pressing it against his cheek. Makishima was trying to keep a straight face, but even Onoda-the-inexperienced-virgin could tell it was affecting him a lot.

And then, Toudou did it, the so anticipated thing. He opened his mouth a little and took Makishima's manhood in. No way! He was really doing it! Sakamichi was blushing so much she'd bet her bum was red like a baboon's. It seemed time was flowing with an unrealistic speed and rhythm. She felt really dirty, but it couldn't be helped. As if the smooth movements of Toudou's lips over Makishima's length completely hypnotized her. Her legs were being reduced into some kind of lifeless blop.

"Jin...pachi..., no more, or I will...," Makishima moaned and pushed Toudou's face away. It took no more than two minutes. Toudou wiped saliva trickling down his chin while he still played with his dick.

"Hm, Maki-chan... You're really eager today, aren't you? Even though we have so much time," he smiled. "But I won't let you wait any longer." He got up and gave the aroused man a deep kiss.

Honestly, to Sakamichi the kiss itself was even sexier than what happened before.

"Turn around, Maki-chan," Toudou instructed Makishima, both of their breathing growing heavier.

"You sure? Shouldn't I...," Makishima wondered, his hands slowly undressing Toudou.

"It's ok, Maki-chan. I'm getting impatient as well," Toudou blushed, quickly freed his erection and turned Makishima around, laying his upper body on the desk.

"I... didn't really expect your visit, so I don't have anything here," Makishima mumbled, hinting he had neither lubricant nor condoms. He let out a quiet whimper as Toudou pressed his fingertips against his opening with intention of preparing him a little.

"Don't worry, I'll take it slow. You know I'd never hurt you, right?" Toudou asked as he fondled the sensitive area tenderly.

"Yeah," Makishima laughed.

"Maki-chan," Toudou moaned. "Can I...?"

"Just don't ask and do it," the green haired man hissed through clenched teeth.

He was... He was going to put it in! Really... Really? No way.

Sakamichi felt goose bumps appearing all over her body. No, she couldn't watch the scene any longer! If she witnessed all of it, she would surely regret it afterwards. Time to go. Time to run away!

Carefully, as quietly as she could, she took a step backwards. And another. Taking the third step backwards, the last one before turning around and dashing away, she suddenly hit a wall. She nearly let out a surprised shriek, but in the very last moment she realised her situation. It was imperative to keep absolutely quiet. Her steps were probably much longer than she'd expected. She'd never thought she could hit the wall so quickly!

"Oooh, what are you doing here, you little voyeuristic fairy? Aren't you ashamed? So gross..."

A whispering voice in her right ear not only caused her a slight heart attack; it also made her squeak like a frightened mouse.

"W-What was that, Toudou?" she heard Makishima's startled voice from the office.

"Shit," the familiar voice in her ear cursed and Sakamichi felt a pair of lanky arms twist around her body.

Before she could figure out what was happening to her, she got dragged away like a log through the corridor, right into the men's restroom, and got thrown into one of the stalls.

"Eh... Eh?" she let out a few surprised sounds as she tried to free herself from the space between a toilet and a wall of the stall. It seemed she was somehow stuck. She completely forgot about the person dragging her there in the first place. She turned around to see their face, although she was sure she knew who the person was. It was dark in the restroom, but she could see just a little thanks to the light coming from the corridor.

Midousuji Akira was standing in the doorway of the stall, not looking at the petite girl at all. Instead, he was listening carefully for the sounds coming from the office.

"Fuck, they are going to snoop around," Midousuji hissed quietly, entered the same stall without any warning and pressed himself against Onoda, pushing her further into the space between the toilet and the wall.

"M-Midousuji-kun," Sakamichi whined quietly as the position was quickly getting uncomfortable for her. Her face was buried somewhere in the folds of his dark shirt.

"Shut up, small fry," he ordered her, placed his gloved palm on the top of her head and pressed her face against his chest so crudely she had trouble breathing.

"T-Toudou! At least don't walk around with your dick out! Put on your pants!" They could hear Makishima yelling from the office.

"No need to! I'm proving you there's no one, Maki-chan!" Toudou voice sounded much closer.

Soon they found out why. He turned on the lights of the restroom and entered the place. He was indeed pants-less, but Midousuji and Onoda couldn't see that.

"No, I mean it! Put on something! What if Onoda's still here? She's such an innocent kid! I don't want you to scare her with your damn cock!" Makishima yelled some more. Onoda trembled as she tried her best to keep quiet. She felt Midousuji fidget a bit as she clawed her fingers into his lean arms.

"No one in here after all," Toudou mumbled to himself. They escaped his notice only thanks to Toudou's reluctance. He wanted to be back with Maki-chan as soon as possible. Onoda felt something really heavy lift off her chest when the lights in the restroom got turned off again. She however kept quiet till they heard a pair of moaning voices.

"What... should we do? Wait or run away?" she asked him as quietly as she could. He didn't reply.

"Saaakamichiii," he whispered her name instead. "What were you exactly doing, spying on the gross homos?" he asked. Sakamichi felt like punching him for badmouthing them, but there was no way in hell she would dare to punch someone like him.

"I was on my way home... but then I noticed them and... before I knew, I was watching what was happening," she replied sincerely, her face flushed with red once again. Or more like it never returned to its usual state after watching her boss and his friend make love.

"Oh, dirty, dirty. Aren't you ashamed? What a disgusting girl you are," he shook his head. Sakamichi was glad she couldn't see him in the darkness. She would surely feel much worse about her actions if she could. There was something about his eyes that made her extremely insecure about every little thing.

"I-I am. But it happened... so there's nothing I can do about it. I can't wipe my memories or anything," she shrugged, trying to flex her legs. They hurt. Her position was really uncomfortable after all! The toilet seat was digging into her knee and it was nearly painful.

It was in that moment when she noticed it, the very unusual sound – well, at least for her. Being pressed against his chest like that, she could hear it, the steady beating of his heart. It was so orderly and regular, nothing like the fast and confused heartbeats she felt in her chest.

But oh, how surreal it felt! She always thought Midousuji was an extremely weird guy and from the way others spoke of him it wasn't only her imagination. He seemed almost unworldly, and to some parts of her brain it came as a bit of a shocker that this person had a proper heartbeat!

Oh, so he was a human being all along. Yeah.

"You hear me?" he murmured at her and it surprised her, because she apparently got lost in thoughts and totally missed something he'd said.

"W-What? I'm... I'm sorry...," she panicked and realised she started trembling.

This situation was weird, too weird! Toudou was gone and seemed pretty busy with Makishima's buttocks for now, yet this boy was still holding her close, one of his gloved hands still resting on the top of her head. Now that she realised their position, she noticed it was resting there quite gently too, while the other of his hands supported his body against the wall.

She wanted him to let her go, yet it felt really good being this close, especially after what she'd witnessed and the state her body was in, mildly confused and yes, quite aroused too. Lot of things were swirling in her head. Flashbacks of the rare and thus more significant moments when Midousuji treated her nicely; thoughts about how he certainly wasn't handsome-looking, but wasn't that ugly either, especially for people that were into "interesting types"; considerations of positions of her respective limbs in relation to his own body, and all that mixed with calming, steady sounds of his beating heart.

Amidst all of that, words of Naruko and Imaizumi arose as well. Midousuji is a bad guy. The damn lizard is an asshole. Keep away from him. Don't get too close.

Sakamichi wondered how close was too close. Well, the situation she was in probably could be described as "getting too close". Yet, she didn't mind. She didn't mind at all. Sure, his behaviour was pretty odd and he wasn't the friendliest person around, but he wasn't a bad guy.

The sudden surge of emotions stirred something in her. She should say something, at least that's what she felt. And yes, Makishima panting with pleasure in the office wasn't really helping to ease her tension. If she didn't know any better, she'd almost suspect herself for craving an intimate contact as well, despite being an innocent naïve virgin.

"M-Midousuji... kun...," she said in her tiniest voice.

"Gross, Sakamichiii. Don't talk to me in such gross and disgusting way," he growled into her hair. "Is it just me, or do you really sound so lustful? Naughty, naughty. How little it takes to get a virgin turned on... Are you aroused, Saaakaaamiiiichiii? Listening to your boss having sex? So sickening...," he continued to mock her and at one moment, possibly unknowingly, he moved the hand on top of her head a little, as if he wanted to caress her.

Yeah, Sakamichi knew the moans of her boss spiced things up, but it wasn't the main source of her anxiety. Unsure what she was doing anymore, she let her hands slide down his arms to his waist. From there, she twirled them around his lower back. At that moment her heart was beating so painfully she was scared it could burst any moment.

She hugged him... She totally did! She'd hug Naruko and Imaizumi and other boys before, but it was always related to their victories in various races. This was so very different! She hugged him on her own, yet she had absolutely no clue about what was the driving force behind her actions. Surely she wasn't in love, of course not. Could it be pity? Sakamichi certainly felt bad for him because she was the only person in the restaurant, who made any sort of effort to communicate with him in a friendly way. Then again, he never appreciated it, did he?

"What are you doing, gross Sakamichiii. Put your nasty hands away, will you?" Midousuji murmured. Sakamichi wondered why it felt like he just punched her face. Her heart rate was at its limit.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to... I mean I got carried away and...," she whispered quickly, her hands escaping to the safety of her own body and her fingers curled into her tiny fists as if they tried to prevent themselves from making any more forbidden touches. She would surely run away or at least take a few steps back, but it wasn't possible due to her position in-between the toilet, the wall, and the tall, skinny boy.

"Gross...," he uttered hesitantly.

"Ah... This is so awkward. I'm really sorry, I... don't know what got into me and I... eh...," she stuttered in a futile attempt to apologise, but his actions silenced her. His gloved fingers slid into the streaks of her hair and his other hand that rested on the wall until now captured her chin a bit roughly.

Sakamichi wanted to ask him what he was doing, but before she could do as much as take a deep breath, she felt the cracky and unhealthy skin of his lips brushing the space right below her nose rather awkwardly. It took a fraction of a second till she realised he was trying to kiss her on her lips, yet somehow missed the spot. The very next moment, however, he got it right and he managed to graze her mouth, making her let out a tiny whimper, before he did it again, even more softly.

It felt... surprisingly good. Sakamichi had never been kissed before, but surely that's how a good kiss felt like! The shivers running down her spine were amazingly pleasant, but also too intense. So intense that it scared her a little.

Acting more on an instinct than sense, she caught his wrists gently. One of her thumbs coincidentally pressed against the right spot. She could feel his pulse and oh, it wasn't exactly steady and calm anymore.

That's where she lost it. Her mind went totally blank. She had no idea what was happening anymore, but it felt too good to stop. Chances she would start reasoning the whole situation with her inner mind went down the drain as well. She wasn't in the mood to question his actions or her decision to not fight back at all. Instead, she opened her lips a bit, letting him know she was inclined to accept more.

Midousuji was extremely confused with his own actions as well, not to mention the fact she wasn't fighting back at all. If the whole thing started as a mean of mocking her, right now it was miles away from that. He pinched her cheek a little, as he felt her mouth opening slowly. Leaning into the kiss a bit more, he felt both disgust and delight when her tiny fingers around his wrists tightened. He noticed her tilting her head a bit, but she missed the mark and it made their teeth clank against each other. Oh, that wasn't comfortable at all, it was really gross!

With that brief moment, the magic was all gone. He quickly jerked away, staring into the darkness where he expected her eyes to be.

"Gross... Gross!" he spitted, absolutely angry about the traces of her drool on his lips.

"A-Ah," Sakamichi let out a confused sound. He could feel she was trembling all over her body. Surely she realised what happed too, understanding how wrong it was. How GROSS it was!

"Gross... So gross... GROSS! Sakamichi, you're so gross!" he repeated as if it was some kind of mantra. He was clearly losing it. The bewildered girl tried to calm him down somehow, but feeling pretty much the same sort of emotions, she couldn't do anything about it.

Midousuji pushed Sakamichi away, causing her to fall into the space between the toilet and the wall, and quickly left the stall, the restroom, and the girl to her own doom. Sakamichi sat there on the floor, her bum hurting a bit, wondering if she was having some sort of a bizarre nightmare.

She couldn't realise it at first, but her perception of time got totally messed up in the incident. She managed to get up on her feet somehow, but she didn't really get anywhere. Her legs felt like she just set a new time record on her way to Akihabara and back on her granny bike. She sat down on a closed toilet lid and stared into the space blankly for who knows how long.

Meanwhile, the two men in the office finished their business and were slowly dressing up, having no idea what had happened in the restroom.

"Maki-chan, you were perfect as always," Toudou purred happily, came closer to the green haired man and nuzzled the nape of his neck.

"Yeah, don't talk about it and move away, I need to put on my pants," Makishima mumbled and his cheeks were slightly red.

"Oh, you're always so shy, Maki-chan... No need to be embarrassed! We've done it many times before, right?" Toudou laughed.

"Will you please let me put on my pants?" Makishima pushed him away with his elbow.

"I will, I will. I need to go to the toilet anyway," Toudou nodded.

"Good. And hurry up, we're leaving in a few moments."

Toudou left. Then he came back. He was surprisingly quiet. How unlikely for his loud personality.

"Maki-chan...," he started. Makishima looked at him. He seemed concerned about something.

"What, you saw a ghost...," Makishima made a stupid comment.

"The Little Glasses is sitting on a toilet in men's restroom and seems really confused," Toudou informed him.

"W-WHAT? Are you fucking kidding me?! She's still here? Oh god... I knew it would go wrong, dammit!" Makishima panicked and stormed off the office. "Onoda! Onoda! Are you ok? I'm sorry!" Toudou heard him yelling in the restroom.

The two young men decided it was really late for Onoda to go home by bike. Well, she didn't seem particularly able to go there by herself anyway, so they locked her bike in the building and gave her a lift home in Makishima's car. The girl's boss spent all the way to her home apologising to the girl while torturing himself over the idea he scared her for life with his erected dick.

When they dropped off the girl in front of her house, Makishima once again asked if she could make it home safely, even though it took less than ten steps to reach the front door. Onoda smiled a little, thanked them for the lift and disappeared in the house quietly so she wouldn't wake up her mom.

Walking into her room, she immediately collapsed on the floor. It was simply too much! Not knowing what she should do with herself now, she stared at the ceiling and started humming Koi no Hime Hime Pettanko to dull her anxiety even if only a little.


	5. Chapter 5

**Note:**** Nothing perverted happens in this chapter, but it has Midousuji acting like an ass to poor Sakamichi. YAY.**

A girl with a really serious case of bed hair going on looked at her reflection in the mirror. Well, she looked just great.

Sakamichi could barely sleep after what had happened the last night at work. Her eyes were red and teary and she had terrible black circles under them. There was no way she could hide it with makeup, even if she actually made the effort and use some of the beauty products she owned. She used them only for cosplay, so who knows how she would end up looking. Probably like Love Hime.

Sighing, she pushed some toothpaste out of the tube onto her toothbrush. She had to hurry up or she'd miss the bus. Sakamichi couldn't rely on her bike this time; it got left behind in her work after all. Thinking about her work made her feel really uneasy too. Midousuji was supposed to be there today. She wondered if she was ready to meet him after last night.

Thinking about it instead of sleeping as she wriggled on her futon, she could finally admit it to herself. They kissed. He might have initiated the kiss, but it was her not fighting back and trying her best to reciprocate. Well, her best... She had no idea how kissing worked! It was her very first kiss after all.

She was, however, absolutely clueless why would he do something like that. Yeah, she was turned on by the sounds the two love-making guys made, but she could still control her actions, so why didn't he? Even though he acted like she was so gross!

Maybe she was a magical girl and accidentally put him under a spell of some sort. Then again, maybe she was just really tired due to the lack of sleep and was making up silly explanations for Midousuji's confusing actions.

She was sure they weren't in love. No way she could be. And yet, she caught herself staring blankly at the dark bags under her eyes, carefully dragging her toothbrush over her lower lip. It was coarse. Just like Midousuji's kiss. After all, his lips were terribly cracked and unhealthy. But in spite of that all, it was so agreeable.

Too bad the magic ran out. Too bad he ran away. She wouldn't mind staying like that a little longer, no matter what their relationship was. Even if any attempts to set up friendship came from her part only.

"Sakamichi! What's wrong! Hurry up, you'll be late! You still haven't eaten your breakfast!" The girl's daydreaming got cut off by her mom's voice.

"Y-Yeah, I'm coming!" she said and started brushing her teeth properly.

When she arrived at her work and headed to the locker rooms, she met Naruko. He apologised to her and informed her that she should leave because she wandered in staff-only parts of the restaurant. Sakamichi stared at him for a while, trying to process what he'd just told her. He stared back, wondering what the hell her problem was.

"I-It's me, Naruko-kun," she smiled eventually.

"O-Onoda-chan?!" he goggled at her. "What happened to you? Your make up looks like something from tv! A ghost. Or one of those crazy artists!"

"I-It's not make up. I just couldn't sleep this night is all. Sorry, to surprise you like that," she apologised and dragged on to the locker room.

A walking female ghost from horror movies – that was an accurate description of her looks and behaviour for that day. She was on the lobby-cleaning duty, because Imaizumi switched with her as soon as he saw her. She had problems selling things when she was all happy and healthy, there was no way she could interact with customers in this state!

Both of her ex-classmates and friends watched her walk around the lobby, bumping into chairs and dropping dirty trays. Naruko expressed a theory how something he named "Grossuji Virus" spread to her own body, turning her slowly into a nasty, Midousuji-like creature. Imaizumi facepalmed at the idea and decided to call Makishima about it, asking him if it was alright to let the girl go home for today.

"S-SSHO!" Makishima gasped when he heard from Imaizumi. The tall boy had no idea what made him so upset, but he ignored it. "Is she really that bad?!" the boss asked when he calmed down a little.

"Yeah, it seems she couldn't sleep at all and something seems to be troubling her."

"Oh no... Oh no...," Makishima mumbled.

"Makishima-san?"

"Don't worry, Imaizumi! Just send her home, ok? Oh, and bear with the lack of people today. Midousuji called in sick as well."

Imaizumi walked the narrow corridor connecting various important rooms of the restaurant, wondering if Onoda's weird condition and Grossuji's absence were related to each other. He had a really bad feeling about it. It was too odd to be a mere coincidence.

He found the girl sitting in a small lounge for employees. Instead of eating properly, she was more or less digging through her lunchbox with a pair of sticks.

"Onoda," he addressed her. Since she was buried in thoughts more than her fried chicken was buried under mountains of rice in her lunchbox, he startled her pretty badly.

"W-What?!" she shrieked, looked around and knocked the lunchbox down the table. It spilled all over the floor. Imaizumi looked at the mess and sighed.

"I called boss. He says you should go home," he informed her.

"What? Makishima-san says that? But I'm alright! Besides, I'm halfway through today's shift! I can go for a while longer," she tried to reason with him.

"No, you obviously need some sleep. You should go home right now. To be honest, you staying around is more troublesome than helpful," he looked at her sternly. He was always like that. Saying criticism without worrying about other people's feelings. No wonder many saw him as an unfriendly guy.

"Ah... I see. I'm dropping everything today, right?" she smiled apologetically.

"Well, more than usual, yes."

"Ok... I'll just clean that up and be on my way," she pointed at her spilt lunchbox.

"Yeah," he nodded and watched her get up from the chair. He couldn't help it. He had to ask. "Onoda, Midousuji called in sick today," he informed her in a seemingly casual tone of voice. He noticed a slight change in her face.

"Oh, I thought he was a bit late," Sakamichi said.

"Do you have any idea why?" he wondered.

"Eh... No, not really," she lied to Imaizumi.

"But you look pretty bad yourself. Onoda, did something happen between you two?" he asked directly this time. The girl lurched as he finished the sentence.

"Not really, it must be just a coincidence, heh," Sakamichi replied. Imaizumi could swear she started sweating nervously.

"Well, anyway, take a break today, alright? No bike trips to Akiba!" he forced a smile, but they both knew he sucked at those.

"Yeah, don't worry! I would probably faint on my way there anyway," she laughed, but it didn't really sound honest.

When she left, Imaizumi was a hundred percent sure something happened between the two awkward existences.

Onoda took her bike and rode it home. She somehow made it back around three o'clock in the afternoon. All her attempts at falling asleep ended up being futile despite her exhaustion. The sweet dreams wouldn't come. Well, if they did, it was very likely they wouldn't be sweet at all. After all, Imaizumi mentioned Midousuji was staying home today...

What if he won't come ever again? It was surely because of the kiss. She was trying to make friends with him and now it was all in vain because he probably hated her. She was sure of that. Sakamichi couldn't blame him though – what they'd done was so gross...

But, maybe he was sick and was fighting with fevers and headaches. She was probably the only person who was willing to pay him a visit. He didn't look like someone who had many friends altogether, let alone all this way from his home city.

Sakamichi tried to ignore these thoughts while wiping dust from her shelves and action figures (she had a reasonably sized collection), but it wasn't working. Eventually, sticking a toy capsule she got from a vending machine into her backpack, she decided to visit the boy after all and called Makishima asking for Midousuji's address. Her boss was a bit surprised about the phone call, but after a small chat about her condition, she managed to get what she wanted.

It took less than hour for her to get some food from a shop, jump on her granny bike and get to his place with the get-well-gifts in the basket on her handlebars. When she stopped her bike in front of Midousuji's home, it was almost half past five.

He lived in a shabby apartment building at the edge of the town, not too far from their work. Sakamichi wondered if it was really the right place. The building seemed half empty, or the inhabitants did their best to make it look that way. She took a piece of paper with the address from her pocket and checked it again. No mistake, it was the place. Parking her bike in a small metallic shed, she climbed the stairs of the building, right to the fourth floor where Midousuji's place was supposed to be.

"I wonder if he's away?" she asked herself quietly after ringing the doorbell for the fifth time. Either he was gone or he was asleep. Or, something bad happened to him. Onoda started to worry. She didn't know him that well, but it seemed he could do something bad to himself if he got in a stressful situation. Maybe.

Onoda looked around her as if she expected him to hide behind a corner and spy on her or something. She was getting a bit desperate. She really wanted to see him and maybe apologise for what happened yesterday. It was him who kissed her, but if she didn't spy on Makishima and Toudou, they wouldn't get into the situation where the kiss could happen so easily.

A kiss. It still seemed so surreal. She got a kiss!

"I guess... I'll wait here for a while," she mumbled. Maybe she informed some imaginary friend of hers about the decision to stay for a while. She placed her shopping bag on the floor, sat down beside it and rested her back against the wall. To kill time, she took a manga volume from her rucksack and started reading it.

Midousuji got off his bike, put the frame over his shoulders and carried it all the way to the fourth floor where he lived. He spent the day biking. He managed to go for at least three hundred kilometres, maybe even more – he had no idea how much exactly. It helped him to ease his mind after his gross and sickening actions from last night.

Kissing the stupid girl. GROSS. Why would he? She wasn't attractive at all and her way of talking about everything and the need to address problems all the time was really getting on his nerves. He liked calm, quiet girls. Well, maybe if he taped her damn mouth shut she would be much more tolerable. But then again why would he bother?! It's not like he loved her!

These thoughts stopped when he concentrated on pedalling, but now that he carried his bike on his back, it all returned to him. It left him so upset! Midousuji was so angry at himself for acting like a damn small fry he despised so much.

"Gross... I can't believe I did the gross thing last night. So gross...," he repeated quietly. If he met any of his neighbours, they would definitely think he's a psycho. He climbed the last few stairs to the fourth floor and walked the long corridor leading to his front door.

He noticed it quite early. Something was lying in front of his door. Something too big to be a forgotten bag of trash, and besides he was sure he'd thrown his trash into a dumpster before he left earlier that day.

Oh. No. It was a bag of trash after all. Disgusting. He stood in front of a familiar girl sleeping on the floor with a manga book in her hands. She was curled up like a little kitten and her head rested on a plastic bag full of some food.

Midousuji hid his face in his empty hand and started rubbing his eyes.

"Gross... Gross gross groooooss," he murmured, his mood that he managed to repair thanks to cycling falling back into fiery pits of hell. What was she doing here? Why? Did she come to pay him a visit in sickness? Him? Him of all people?

Why did she try so hard to become his friend? Why did she do her best to disgust him so much?

There was no point standing here over her sleeping body any longer. He unlocked the door and disappeared inside, locking them again, just in case.

Then, no more than five minutes later, he unlocked the door again, crept out of his apartment, picked up the girl from the floor and carried her, her shopping bag and the rucksack inside, leaving only the manga book behind.

Midousuji laid her body on a tatami in his tiny living room. He did so way more carefully than he intended to. If he was acting like himself, he'd thrown her into a toilet and flushed her to oblivion.

Toilet. Oh no, the memories were back. Not the toilet again. He solemnly swore he'd use a toilet only with his eyes closed from now on.

The problem was he wasn't acting like himself. Something seemed to prevent him from being really nasty to her. Well, one thing was talking in rude manner with the girl, but it seemed nearly impossible to actually hurt her physically. Whenever he was about to push her or grab her hand roughly, some unknown force stopped him. He tried his hardest to persuade himself it was due to her lack of grouchiness. It seemed that no matter what he'd do, it could never affect her in a negative way.

He spent at least thirty seconds staring at her, wondering what to do now that she was lying there in his living room. All helpless. Well, for starters, he took her glasses off and put them on a small table in the corner of the room. The reason behind this action was the intention to confuse the silly girl once she wakes up. Her eyesight seemed to be pitiful so it was very likely she wouldn't see a thing.

Of course he wasn't worried the glasses could break on her face if she turned in her sleep. Of course not!

He sat beside her for a while, questioning why would he even do something like that. His inner voice was going crazy with the word "gross", but it was too tiresome to let it out loud. After all, when he started to yell that word at other people, it was to show them his opinion of them and to intimidate them. Oh, and he didn't want to wake her up. Obviously it was more comfortable when she was asleep. At least she was quiet that way.

It could be his imagination, but she looked like she couldn't sleep the last night at all. He wondered why, he really did. Especially since she looked so carefree all the time!

Originally, he wanted to prank her last night. Her speech about him being a good guy pissed him off and he wanted to punish her with locking her in the restaurant, running off and leaving her behind. She would be able to get out, that much was certain, but it would be enough to give her a little scare.

It had to be done to show her he was anything but a good guy, but it backfired badly.

As if the sexy noises the two homos made weren't enough, seeing her behind the door in the corridor and spying on the two men... it was gross to admit it, but it actually DID things to him.

Sakamichi looked so vulnerable, doing something she wasn't supposed to. She probably didn't know, but he noticed it – the way her hands trembled. He found it so unbelievable, yet he had to admit he'd gladly switched places with the two men in the office and do the same thing to Sakamichi. He would most likely devour her like a wild beast.

Heh, even though these thoughts surfaced only for a split second and disappeared again just as fast, he couldn't deny their existence. It made his insides writhe with disgust.

And then, when she bumped into him and he had to drag her to the toilet stall to avoid that Prince Charming, things got even worse. Sure, there were these horny emotions based purely on instinct, but once her tiny body was pressed against his chest, it felt weirdly good.

Weirdly familiar.

At that point, he just prayed for the snooping guy to walk away so he could jump on his beloved De Rosa and sprint away home. He tried mocking her, but it only made things more complicated, and then she did it, she really hugged him. He still could feel it, her small hands on his lower back, as if she burned their shape into his skin.

It was the last drop. Midousuji knew he would regret it later because it was so incredibly gross, yet he did it anyway, kissed her soft, pinkish lips.

It was gross, but it didn't feel half as bad as he'd expected. God dammit, what was happening to him?

All his thoughts escaped when Sakamichi moved on the tatami and let out a small, sleepy moan. He jumped up and decided to scram. He really needed a shower after all.

Sakamichi woke up. She could recognize the sensation of tatami pressed against her face.

"Did I doze off?" she wondered for herself and sat up. "Where did my glasses go..." She tried to look around. As expected, she didn't see much. Her view looked like a watercolour painting with too much water added. Everything was blurry.

"So you woke up from your gross slumber," she heard somewhere on her left. She flinched as she recognised the voice and the dialect straight away.

"M-Midousuji-kun?!" she gasped.

That's right, it was him, no mistake. Her assumption that she felt asleep in the living room of her own house turned out to be wrong. She remembered now, her plan to pay the boy a visit. If she remembered correctly, she was waiting for him outside his apartment. She must have fallen asleep!

"Why did you come here? To stalk me some more, you gross woman?" Midousuji asked her with an annoyed tone.

"Uh... No, no. I heard you called in sick, so I thought I'd go and visit you. Makishima-san gave me your address...," she explained.

"Weren't you supposed to be at work till nine o'clock?" he wondered and sounded a bit like a teacher asking a student where they went while skipping classes.

"I was at work, but I was messing up more than usual, so Imaizumi-kun called boss and asked him to let me go home," she continued while reaching around her blindly in search of her glasses.

"Gross," Midousuji mumbled and watched her. She was kind of entertaining.

"I... I couldn't sleep at all last night, because... of what happened...," Sakamichi spurted out and blushed.

"Gross! Gross! Don't even mention it, Grossmichiii! It's extremely gross, so shut up!" he yelled.

"Ah... Yeah, right, it was... sorry," she nodded. Her expression turned a bit sad. Maybe it was his imagination though. "A-Anyway, I decided to visit you. I bought some food for you!"

"What do you think you are, Sakamichiii, my mother?! Don't even try patronizing me!" he scolded her.

"I-I didn't mean to act like your mom! That's what friends do, right? Visit each other when one of them is ill...," she looked down on her feet. She heard Midousuji taking a deep breath to yell some more at her, so she quickly continued: "We aren't friends, I know that. But I would like to be your friend..."

"... Gross," he sighed. She really seemed impossible to bring down. He started digging through the plastic bag she'd brought with her. "What is this, Sakamichiii? You came to visit me because I'm ill, but you bought me only sweets?! Where is the obligatory fruit?! As if I'd eat some gross sugary stuff, you stupid girl!"

"B-But fruit is so expensive! I could hardly afford a nice gift-wrapped melon... But it's the thought that counts, right? Sweets are delicious, and I bought a lot! I'm sure there is something you like," Sakamichi told him.

"No. I don't like sweets. Sweets are disgusting," he hissed.

"Ah... Is that so... I'm sorry, I should have figured out you don't eat them. After all, you have such healthy and nice looking teeth and sugar is bad for...," she started mumbling something, but he stopped paying attention as soon as she mentioned the word teeth.

"Shut up about teeth! That's creepy, are you a freak or what?! Wanna die?!" he exploded. Onoda trembled a little. His scream really startled her. She only wanted to compliment him!

Midousuji was so upset. He was confused enough after their tender moment last night, and now she started mentioning teeth? His oh-so-perfect teeth?! Complimenting them just like the person he used to know in the distant past?

"I'm... sorry," Sakamichi sniffed. It would seem his reaction hurt her, even if only a little.

"... It's ok, I guess," he muttered and slapped his face in disbelief. What the hell made him say that? He finally sort of achieved what he wanted, he caused her emotion distress! "Just don't mention my teeth like some psycho dentist, ok? Sakamichiii," he added, feeling really weak.

"O-Ok," the girl nodded and smiled shyly. "M-Midousuji-kun... Where did my glasses go?" she wondered after a minute of silence.

"What, Sakamichiii? Silly, silly. Glasses don't have a pair of tiny legs. They didn't go anywhere, obviously. Sure you know that, don't you...," he taunted her.

"Yeah, I know," she admitted.

"So, are you trying to hide the fact you suspect that I took them from you? Groooss."

"No, no... I didn't want to hint that. I'd just... be happy if I got them back. I can't see anything," she explained. Midousuji got up from his spot on the tatami, grabbed the glasses and came closer.

"Why do you want them back? Are you scared I could hurt you when you can't see what's going on, you small fry?" he continued.

"No. I'm not scared of that! You're a good guy after all," she shook her head.

That again. He gritted his teeth. Onoda continued without waiting for any verbal reaction from him.

"I just want to see you when I'm talking to you," she shrugged and blushed again, because she saw his blurry silhouette sit down in front of her.

"Gross, Sakamichiii. You seem to find new and new ways to be gross. Ewww," he whined, but stretched his arms to her face and put the glasses on her nose.

"A-Ah," Sakamichi let out a little sound in surprise and blinked at him, as her eyes adjusted to the regained ability to see.

Oh god, he was almost naked! All he was wearing was a pair of briefs and, well, it didn't count as a piece of clothing but there was a towel hanging over his shoulder. His hair was all wet and he smelled like a shampoo. He obviously got out of shower not so long ago.

Sakamichi stared at his slender body as if she saw a ghost.

"Ah!" she let out a surprised scream and backed off on the tatami.

"What, Sakamichiii? Do I look gross?" he pouted.

"N-No, not at all... Just... You're almost naked," she stuttered, stating the obvious. Her face was completely red and she was about to take off the glasses again. He stopped her hand and pushed her glasses back.

"You wanted them back. Don't take them off!" he scolded her. "Besides, this is my place. I can be naked all I want. You should be grateful I'm still wearing underwear," he retorted.

"Y-Yeah... Uh. In the plastic bag I brought with me, there is a capsule I got from a vending machine! H-Have you found it?" she asked quickly in order to change the topic and keep her mind distracted. Her cheeks got even hotter once she realised she was unintentionally staring at his belly button.

"Yeah, I did," he admitted.

"Oh! You see, there's a character from Manyu Manyu anime in it! On top of that, it's Yellow Manyu! It's really rare to get any of the Manyus from a vending machine. You may not like sweets, but I will let you have the Yellow Manyu!" her eyes sparkled as she started talking about anime. She totally forgot he is sitting in front of her like that.

"Sakamichiii, that is not possible," he told her.

"Uh? Why?" she blinked at him. "Oh. You don't like anime, right... Not many people do, I can understand that. But you can keep it. You see, as a good luck charm of sorts!" She sounded so optimistic. Disgusting.

"I've already thrown it away," he spit some more poison at her.

"Th-Thrown away... o-oh...," she gasped and fidgeted on the floor.

"Yeah. Because I don't want something gross like that lying around!"

Anything he would say beyond that point would be like sprinkling an opened wound with salt.

"I-I see...," she gulped. She was stuttering before, but now she had obviously problems saying anything. Her eyes started watering.

"Oooh, are you going to cry about it, Sakamichiii? Cry, because I threw away some stupid toy? You are a small fry after all. You little disgusting weakling! Pffft pffft," he snickered in his weird, creepy way.

"I'm not crying. I... I have to go. Good night," Sakamichi got up, grabbed her rucksack and headed towards the exit.

After entering the kitchen by mistake, she finally found the way out of his apartment. She didn't even notice the manga book lying by the wall. When she picked her bike from the shed and started pedalling like a maniac through the city, tears were already streaming down her face. They were the reason she had to stop eventually. She had absolutely no idea where she was going.

Standing on the side of the road, she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes while searching for a handkerchief in her rucksack. All of a sudden, a car stopped right next to her. Imagine her surprise after she realised she was staring at Toudou, the extremely handsome boyfriend of Makishima.

"What happened, Little Glasses?" he asked her, his voice either entertained or worried – it was hard to tell.

"Nothing, I just...," she sniffed and wiped her tears with the right sleeve of her cardigan.

"You surely don't look like it's nothing," Toudou sighed, got out of the car and grabbed her bike without warning. "Come on, I will give you a ride!" Sakamichi silently watched as he hoisted her bike, placed it atop the rack on his car's roof, secured it and then smiled at her so brightly she nearly went blind.

"So! In the car you go, Little Glasses!" he opened the door for her, leaving her so perplexed she actually got in the car without any protests.

"So? Where will it be? Maki-chan's fast food? Or your home?" he asked her.

"It-It's ok, Toudou-san! I can go by myself...," she let out a little hiccup.

"You're telling me that now that your bike is loaded on my car? It's too late! Either I take you to one of the destinations or you will go with me to Tokyo, Little glasses!" he laughed.

"Tokyo...," Sakamichi repeated after him. She actually considered the idea of going with him. After all, she was always in the mood to go to Akihabara.

"...Ok, then take me home, please," she forced a smile, chasing her inner otaku back to its cave.

"Roger that, young lady," he pulled his car away.

"So, care to tell me what happened? Maki-chan mentioned you looked terrible so they let you go home early today," he started while driving.

"Yeah. I couldn't fall asleep last night and I was really tired," she explained.

"Maki-chan is worried you got shocked seeing us two...," Toudou mentioned and looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Eh... N-No," Sakamichi shook her head. "It surprised me, but... it was kinda nice, I guess! Y-You looked really happy together and it was so tender and... I-I'm sorry, I'm not in a position to say such things!" she quickly apologised.

"Oh! So you understand! How much I love Maki-chan!" he yelled happily.

"I guess," she nodded.

"Then, why were you so perplexed? You can tell me, I will keep your secrets," he said as he stopped at red light. Sakamichi bit her lips and thought about his question for a while.

"W-Well... A boy... kissed me last night...," she started. It took a whole lot of courage to tell about her experience to someone else.

"Oh! That's great, Little Glasses! But, I presume you don't think so, assuming your reaction was like that..."

"Y-Yeah. It was my first kiss and it happened somehow unexpectedly and I... don't really know what to make of it, because I... didn't think it would happen and the person is... a bit complicated," she said nervously, wiggling her fingers to keep her hands occupied.

"It's the scary tall boy, Midousuji, am I right?" Toudou asked, hitting the jackpot. Onoda flinched and silently nodded her chin. "Yeah, he's a weird one... I remember him from my last Inter-High. Normally I'd warn you about him, but you know what's he like the best," he commented.

"Well, he's not a bad guy! He's...," Sakamichi stopped in the middle of her sentence.

Not a bad guy. Yet he threw away her precious Yellow Manyu. Her throat felt like someone started strangling her again.

"Why did you cry, though? And where have you been anyway?"

Sakamichi explained how she found out Midousuji skipped work today and decided to pay him a visit, bought him sweets and took a capsule with a toy she got recently from a vending machine as a little get-well-gift. Her face lit up as she started with her explanation of Manyu Manyu storyline and her vivid descriptions why she loved it. Toudou was about to stop her because she was totally sidetracking.

"Well... He threw it away," she mumbled in the end.

"So you're crying about losing the toy you cherished?" he wondered.

Onoda thought about it for a while. Was it the reason? Losing Yellow Manyu?

Hardly. After all, she had another Yellow Manyu on her shelf just above her bed. The one she wanted to give him was an extra one. She managed to get two during her last trip to Akiba. Two completely identical ones. How lucky she felt back then!

"I don't care about the Manyu... I mean, I love it and I feel sorry for the poor Yellow baby, getting thrown away like that, but... it's ok if I lose it," she said slowly.

"So basically, you were crying because he threw away your gift instead of accepting it," Toudou voiced the fact for her.

"I guess," she sighed.

"Hmmm... I'm not trying to say you're in love but it sounds to me like you might be," he presumed and his judgement came completely unhoped-for.

"That... I love him?" she blurted.

"Um! That's what I'm saying!" he nodded. Sakamichi frowned. So was or wasn't he saying she loved him? On top of that, what the hell was he even saying?!

"I... no, no, no... It can't be! Surely I'm not in love!" she panicked and blushed.

"You know, it was the same with me and Maki-chan. I thought I didn't care about him outside of bicycle racing, but it was just me lying to myself," he started narrating as if he was fifty years older than she was. "In the end I gave up, accepted my feelings and all was well, wahahaha!" he laughed, flashing his snow-white teeth.

Sakamichi wondered if "all was well" could happen in her case too. No way. Midousuji was too different from Makishima!

Toudou noticed the change in Onoda's face – her face went from confused to absolutely horrified.

"Little glasses, say... My family owns a traditional inn with hot springs near Hakone. In two weeks, I will be hosting a sort of reunion for some ex-members from both Hakogaku and Souhoku bicycle clubs. I've heard you used to be a manager of Souhoku's club during your last year of high school. Why don't you come too? For free, of course! Well, it will take three days and we'll be mostly riding bikes around the area, but even if you stay in the inn, you should enjoy yourself. The location is really nice and calming and you could relax in the hot springs!

"W-Wow... R-Really? Is it ok if I come?" her eyes sparkled.

"Yeah! I'll talk about it with Maki-chan!" he smiled and stopped in front of her house.

Receiving the young man's help getting the bike down, Sakamichi thanked him for taking care of her and entered her house.

Sluggishly creeping into the kitchen, she got something to eat and headed upstairs to her room in hopes of watching some anime before going to bed.

She sat down on her bed, turned her TV on and watched it without paying any attention to what was on. It was a sumo wrestling tournament.

But it couldn't be helped! Her thoughts were set on the trip to Hakone. It sounded so exciting! It's been a while since she went somewhere with Naruko, Imaizumi and some other friends from her old school. Maybe she could ask Makishima to invite Kanzaki Miki too. The nice, optimistic girl was her dear friend and it would be great to have her around - at least she wouldn't feel so lonely among all the guys.

All of a sudden, her phone still hidden in her rucksack started to play Love Hime opening theme, a sign of an incoming call. Not giving it much importance, she got her phone and picked up. It was probably Makishima, asking if she was ok to come to work tomorrow. Well, she was pretty much ok, a bit sleepy, but Toudou's invitation really raised her spirits.

"Hello? Onoda speaking," she said cheerfully into her phone.

"Oh, Sakamichiii. I see you're in good mood now," she heard on the other side.

The voice ran through her skull like a bullet, stirring a reaction she would never expect. Her skin got covered with goose bumps, her stomach got really uneasy and her heart raced as if she was running for her life.

"M-Midousuji-kun?! W-Why are you...," she gasped.

"You seem fine now so goodnight I guess," he mumbled.

"W-Wait! How did you get my number?" Sakamichi started waving her hands. Maybe she tried to somehow catch him and prevent him from leaving, but it's not like was sitting next to her.

"I might have researched your disgusting personal details a little," Midousuji told her.

"D-Did you go through my backpack when I was asleep?" she wondered.

"...Gross!" His reaction seemed negative, but Sakamichi would swear she was right.

"M-Midousuji-kun! I'd like to apologise... for my meddling, you know? I won't get in your way anymore! I will stop trying to become your friend," the girl let out an avalanche of apologies. She wanted to get it over with. If Midousuji was so set on rendering her friendly approaches useless, she decided to stop approaching him altogether.

"Sakamichiii, you are so gross," he sighed.

"Huh?"

"Don't you have any self-respect? You talk so much and act in a way that makes me physically sick and when you get confronted about it, you just pull your tail between your legs and run away, apologising?! GROSS! GROOOSS! You are a small fry after all," he scolded her.

Sakamichi nearly lost ability to speak. So she was gross girl who was acting gross, ok. But it was also disgusting when she tried to apologise about her gross actions and promised him to stop and avoid him if possible?

What the hell was going on in his head? She had no damn clue.

"W-Why are you calling me...?," she finally asked what she'd wanted to know as soon as she heard his voice.

"I just want to let you know you forgot your stupid, disgusting sweets behind!" he yelled.

Yeah, she knew. She was so upset when she left she couldn't bother with the plastic bag anymore.

"And I ate them all, because you looked so gross, sobbing like that! And now I'm feeling very sick and my belly hurts and damn, I can't stand you, you hear me?! If I can't come to work tomorrow, it's all your fault, you nasty little girl! I hope you won't get any sleep tonight, Gross-michiii! GROSS NIGHT!" Midousuji let out a wave of curses and remorse seemingly in one breath before cutting the call.

Sakamichi sat on her bed motionlessly, still holding her phone next to her ear. She took a deep breath and placed her free hand on top of her chest, just where her heart was. It was going mad.

He scolded her, called her gross, blamed her, and still it made her unexplainably happy just for the small fact he ate her sweets "because she looked gross, sobbing like that".

Taking a moment processing the event, she saved his number into her phone's memory, and sent him a really short message saying only "good night".

Maybe Toudou was right.


	6. Chapter 6

**Note: This chapter has very little MidoSaka, but it has a lot of... everyone else. Also, beware of dicks. Some TouMaki naughtiness happens too.**

"So, Miki-san isn't coming," Onoda wondered with a sprinkle of disappointment. She was sitting in a van next to Kanzaki Tooji, brother of her schoolmate and friend, Kanzaki Miki.

They were currently on their way to Kanagawa prefecture, the city of Hakone to be more specific. Kanzaki, who had been supporting Souhoku's bicycle club ever since he graduated from high school, offered to take everyone's luggage all the way to Toudou's family historical inn, one of the pieces of luggage being Onoda Sakamichi. Or at least that's how she felt, because everyone else went on their bikes.

"She is coming back from Italy this evening. She might or might not come to Hakone tomorrow," Kanzaki replied.

"Italy? She was in Italy?" Onoda blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, visiting her boyfriend," he laughed, sending a peculiar smirk Sakamichi's way. He knew the two girls were friends and there Sakamichi was, sitting in his car all boyfriendless despite of having friends mostly among hot, bicycle-racing guys.

"M-Miki-san has a boyfriend?" Sakamichi gasped. Italy. A boyfriend. Wait, the one who went to Italy after high school was...

"Yeah, she got together with Sugimoto near the end of their last year of high school. Didn't you know?" Kanzaki looked at her.

"N-No, I had no clue!" she stuttered and blushed. It was cute imagining them together! The thought of her two friends dating, however, triggered a chain of anxious feelings about her own situation.

Not much happened during the past two weeks. Midousuji came to work and acted like usual, arguing with Naruko and mocking both Imaizumi and customers and not paying much attention to Sakamichi unless they were completely alone, in which case he laughed at her and commented on how gross whatever she was doing at the moment was.

The girl, however, found herself staring at the boy more and more often, still unable to find him attractive whatsoever – he was too bizarre for that. Nevertheless, she discovered the part of herself that thought the boy was actually rather cute.

Ah, it would make the whole "what if I love him" business much easier to figure out, if he was acting nice to her. On the other hand, maybe it was his usual nasty treatment that made his sweeter, kind moments shine brighter. It could be what made Onoda so intrigued.

She'd been so lost in thoughts about the boy all the way from Chiba and it was so hard to break free from them that she hardly paid any attention to the scenery the van was passing. She had no idea when a bunch of skyscrapers, the sign they were reaching Tokyo, materialised from the thin air. Sakamichi watched the sparkly grey and blue metallic teeth biting at the clear, cerulean sky. This must be the first time in her life when she didn't get all thrilled about Akihabara when she saw the typical silhouette of the capital.

Actually, there was another thing on her mind that could caused her anxiety even thoughts of Akihabara couldn't kill. Midousuji learned about the trip quite early and didn't seem really interested. It wasn't until three days ago when Makishima approached Onoda and informed her that Toudou invited Midousuji to go as well, and while the green haired boss was totally against the idea, it was Toudou's decision and there was nothing he could do. It was entirely up to Midousuji if he decided to go or not.

And he did. The van passed the trio about twenty minutes ago. Midousuji, Naruko and Imaizumi were riding as if they were competing for the victory on the Champs-Élysées during the last stage of the Tour de France.

All three of them seemed to go at their full throttle. Imaizumi was riding in his usual, polished way. He hardly made any wasteful movements, effectively changing each joule of his energy into speed, and although he was gasping for air and his body was covered with droplets of sweat, he still looked incredibly cool. Sakamichi was pretty sure she would think the very same thing even if she was a guy, because, in her humble opinion, everyone should consider Imaizumi cool.

Much like Imaizumi, Naruko was giving it his all. Sakamichi had no clear idea what the big deal was, but the redhead pulled his racing pants all the way over his jersey as far as they could reach and tried to keep his limbs as close to the frame as possible, giving his body much more compact form to reduce wind resistance to minimum. Sakamichi knew there was a special discipline in bicycle racing called individual time trial, and racers participating in such races looked pretty much the same, except their bikes were specially modified for speed while Naruko was trying to simulate the conditions of a time trial with what he had at hand.

And Midousuji... Just one look at him and Sakamichi felt goose bumps appearing all over her body, even on those parts she had no idea they even existed. It wasn't thanks to her possible feelings to him, no. It was because this was probably the first time she saw him go all out while riding a bicycle. He was leaning forward so much it almost contradicted laws of physics and the expression in his face was utterly scary. He was set on victory and willing to do anything for it.

Yes, he gave Sakamichi creeps when he looked like that, but luckily she had no time to dwell on it as Kanzaki expressed his worries about their health when he saw them riding so fast, forcing her into another dialogue.

"They should pace themselves, or they'll drop dead before even reaching Hakone," he sighed and looked at them in the rear view mirror when the vehicle passed them.

"Y-You mean they are trying to keep this pace up all the way to Hakone?" Sakamichi looked at him in horror, hoisting her body up in the seat and looking out of the opened window on her side.

"No way, it's impossible," Kanzaki shook his head. "They are all quite competitive. I guess they just decided on various checkpoints on the route to Hakone and they are closing in on one of them. Still, if they do this often, they will totally wear themselves out."

Sakamichi agreed, but there was nothing she could do. She was wondering for what purpose Toudou would invite the Oosaka boy to join them in his family's hot springs resort in Hakone. Judging from what she had heard from Naruko and Imaizumi, he was miles away from popular when it came to both Souhoku and Hakogaku teams.

All the thoughts exhausted her and before she knew it, she dozed off. When she woke up due to the car stopping, she found herself in front of a really old looking but absolutely lovely inn surrounded by forests.

"Knock knock, Sleeping Beauty says hello to a sleeping beauty!" she heard through the car's window. Someone was knocking on it and she recognized the voice. It was Toudou! The girl in the car smiled, wondering if he really called her "a sleeping beauty" just now. She unfastened her seat belt and slowly got out of the van.

"Long time no see, Toudou-san!" she bowed her head politely. He laughed and gave her a friendly pat on her hair, messing them up.

He started discussing something with Kanzaki, giving the girl some time to look around. The place was really so nice and soothing! She might have some worries about going there alone with all the guys, but now she was extremely glad she did.

"Onoda, wanna help me get the luggage inside?" Kanzaki asked her.

"Eh, sure!" she agreed. She was a girl and the luggage might be heavy, but at least she would feel useful that way.

But it was tedious. Everything was much heavier than she expected! The tiny female struggled with all the suitcases, considering the option her seemingly male friends had been secretly girls all along and their suitcases were full of clothes and shoes and makeup and other girly stuff.

Well, her trunk was the heaviest of them all as about half of her so called "things she absolutely could not leave home for more than a day" was comics. How Onoda Sakamichi-like.

Sakamichi dragged her trunk through a narrow corridor of the Japanese style inn towards the room Toudou told her about. She was cursing her decision to take her mom's old suitcase instead of her new one with wheels.

Carrying it in her hands was a stupid idea too. Her fingers were dying from the weight and she eventually dropped it. She was really lucky it didn't fall right on her feet nor opened due to the impact, revealing the insides to anyone who would pass this way.

"Let me."

All of a sudden she heard a very low voice just above her head as she tried to pick the suitcase up.

"Uh?" she raised her face and stared at a tall blonde guy with really significant eyebrows. He picked up her suitcase as if it was light as a feather and looked at her.

"Where should I put it?"

"U-Uh... The room at the very end... T-Thanks...," she blurted out.

"Don't mention it. After all, I'm strong," he said and carried the suitcase for her. Sakamichi followed him nervously, thanking him again and watching him disappear in the room across hers when his business was done.

"W-What a strong guy," she sighed dreamily and closed her sliding door. She decided to get a bit familiar with the place where she was supposed to sleep for the next few nights.

And what a nice, small room it was! Its space was four and a half tatami and it had a tiny but elegant table and lacquered, expensive-looking shelves. It was probably the most luxury-looking hotel room she slept in, ever.

Sakamichi opened her suitcase and put her clothes into the one of built-in wardrobes. When she was at it, she changed her clothes too.

"Little glasses?" Toudou knocked on the door when she slipped into shorts reaching just above her knees.

"Y-Yes?"

Toudou opened the door and smiled brightly at her.

"Getting comfortable?"

"Yes! It's such a lovely hotel!" she nodded.

"I'm sorry to give you such a small room. The others are staying in much bigger and nicer rooms, but I didn't want to put you in one with all the boys, it could be pretty stressing for a girl like you and stress is bad for your skin, you know," he explained. "This room is the smallest and the least pretty we have, to be honest..."

" N-Not at all! I love this room a lot! Thank you for being so considerate, Toudou-san!" she bowed again. Toudou grinned at her.

"I'm glad you feel this way! By the way, Maki-chan just called me! They are about to reach Hakone! They should be arriving any minute now. From what he said, it looks like your friends are racing each other. Wanna meet them at the finish line?" he winked.

Sakamichi stared at him as if she couldn't understand the language he was using. Then, she felt a great wave of excitement swell in her.

"Y-Yes!" she nodded.

Toudou took her outside right away.

"The fuck, Toudou, I didn't know you had a sister in elementary school!" a wild looking guy yelled at the handsome man as soon as Toudou and Sakamichi joined a pair of young men in front of the hotel. Both of them were already dressed in biking jerseys.

Sakamichi's face turned red. She was bad with people, especially good-looking ones, ESPECIALLY when they paid attention to her. And good-looking they were.

"Arakita! She's not my sister. She's actually my and Maki-chan's adoptive daughter! Wahaha!" Toudou laughed and Sakamichi shrank to a half of her original height.

"Two guys can't adopt in Japan, that's illegal! Stop bullshitting me! Do you think I'm stupid?"

Sakamichi slowly moved behind Toudou's back.

"What a nasty habit, Jinpachi. You shouldn't make things up like that," another guy, a brown-haired one, scolded Toudou in a very mild voice.

"Calm down, it was just a joke!" Toudou waved his hand. "Anyway! This is Onoda Sakamichi, she's an ex-classmate of Naruko and Imaizumi and the last year she was a manager of Souhoku bicycle racing club!" he announced somehow proudly, as if she was indeed his adoptive daughter. Then, he started introducing the two guys.

"N-Nice to meet you," Onoda stuttered.

"So you used to be a manager of Souhoku! You don't look too manager-like though," Arakita stared at her. His eyes were scary.

"W-What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, for starters, you have no boobs," he replied.

"I... I have them," she mumbled reluctantly, but wanted to run away from him. There was something predator-like about him, it made her really uncomfortable.

"Behave, Arakita," someone said in a deep voice Sakamichi heard before. On top of that, in a way as if he was talking to a misbehaved dog. Turning her head, she found out it was the blond guy with peculiar eyebrows.

"_It's the strong person_," she thought for herself and felt some kind of relief. After all, he helped her with the suitcase a while ago.

"Hey hey, Fuku-chan," the guy whined, but somehow he seemed less harmful than before.

"_Fuku-chan... This strong person...?"_ Sakamichi's lips trembled when she tried to hold them from forming a smile. Was this nickname cute or what? Toudou introduced the strong person to Onoda as well. It turned out he used to be Hakogaku's captain three years ago.

"Where is Izumida?" Fukutomi asked his former teammates after saying hi to Onoda.

"He went ahead with Kinjou and Tadokoro," Shinkai replied.

Kinjou... Tadokoro... Both names rang the bell. Sakamichi had heard Makishima and others mentioning the names before. ("Hey, Hotshot, the other day, the old man Tadokoro came for a visit and ordered literally the whole menu...")

"Well, we should fuck off as well otherwise Izumida will be full of himself," Arakita frowned.

"Aren't you glad he's gone? You didn't enjoy when he did the thing where he talks to Andy and Frank," Shinkai smiled, pulled an energy bar from the back of his jersey and started chomping on it. If Onoda didn't know that jerseys had pockets on their back, she'd though he pulled it out of his bum.

"No shit! If there's one thing I didn't miss at all, it must be his stupid talking to his imaginary friends," Arakita roared.

"That's nasty, Yasutomo! Don't talk about your underclassman like that," Shinkai smiled.

Imaginary friends? Andy and Frank? Those were foreign names. Did this Izumida person have foreign friends that were imaginary? Did he... talk to them in some foreign language and Arakita was pissed off that he couldn't understand what they were saying? Wait, imaginary? Like, they were not real people? She would ask, but it would be probably rude? She just met these young men after all.

Sakamichi's confusion was clearly showing on her face, because Toudou laughed and explained:

"Izumida is a guy a year younger than us and he is really muscular and proud of his body. So proud, he called his pectorals Andy and Frank."

"A-And he talks to them?" Onoda stared in disbelief. She sort of imagined this Izumida as one of those bodybuilders from competitions, riding his bike in tiny thongs, his oiled muscles sparkling in sunlight.

"Oh yes! But he's a good guy, don't worry," Shinkai tried to calm her down. It wasn't very effective. And she had thought Souhoku's bicycle racing team was full of weirdoes...

"I'm going, what about you?" Fukutomi asked the others, putting his helmet on.

"Count me in," Shinkai nodded.

"Wherever you go, Fuku-chan," Arakita replied half-seriously.

"What about you, Toudou?" Fukutomi looked at the handsome guy with a headband.

"Nah, I want to give Maki-chan a welcome kiss," Toudou pouted.

"This, I didn't miss at all either. You and your Maki-chan bullshit," Arakita gave out a really exhausted sigh, grabbed his bike parked near them and left. Shinkai and Fukutomi followed him.

"Toudou-san, can I ask something?" Sakamichi started shyly.

"Um! What is it?" he nodded with this "ask everything you want, I can teach you anything!" aura going on.

"Others are alright about you and Makishima-san? Didn't they make fun of you? Y-You're both guys and...,"she looked to the ground.

"Not at all! I didn't let them. If you are confident enough about things you do, people will respect you. That goes for love as well," he preached.

"I-I see," Sakamichi said quietly, considering asking more since Toudou seemed so knowledgeable in this area.

Unfortunately, there was no time to ask questions. They heard Naruko's yelling echoing in the forest surrounding the hotel.

"Oh, here they are!" Toudou said, not even bothering to hide his excitement.

Sakamichi tried to listen carefully. The sound of spinning wheels was getting really distinct.

"Who do you think will win?" she wondered.

"Who knows? All of them must be extremely tired after such a long journey and we are halfway on the top of the hill. You could call it a mountain stage with a finish line at the end! I have a small hunch...," Toudou smirked mysteriously.

Sakamichi didn't know what he meant, but then the front appeared. It was Makishima! The girl stared in disbelief as he rode in the first place, his bike wavering from side to side as if he was about to crash any moment.

"There! That's my beloved Maki-chan!" Toudou started hopping on the spot like an over-excited bunny. Sakamichi noticed an annoyed flinch in Makishima's face.

Yeah, Toudou was a bit embarrassing, but she could understand his thrill. Makishima's riding was really impressive. She'd never though her boss was capable of that.

He was so fast the interval between his appearance at the curve and his crossing of the finish line felt shorter than a blink of an eye.

"Ah! That's it, Maki-chan, you're the King of the Mountains!" Toudou squealed and jumped at Makishima as soon as he got off his bike.

"Leave me alone, Toudou! I need to catch a breath!" Makishima tried to push him away, but wasn't very successful.

"What about the others?" Sakamichi asked.

"They're coming," Makishima nodded. As if they didn't know. Well, Naruko's scream from before sounded a bit like Midousuji pushed him off a bridge into the river or something.

"A-And who's winning?" Sakamichi stuttered, starting to worry a little.

"How should I know? But we got a little visitor, so who knows who will be the second to cross the finish line," Makishima replied, eyes fixed on the corner of the inn where would the boys come from.

All of a sudden, a large gust of wind hit Sakamichi's petite form with such force it nearly knocked her back. One of the men with her commented something, but she had no idea what it was. She was too taken with the situation to pay attention to anything else.

She knew they were about to appear any moment now. Her heart rate skyrocketed. It felt so much like the last summer's Inter-High! Hurry, where were they? The anticipation was impossible to bear.

Finally! Finally she got a glimpse of the colourful jerseys from behind the trees. Imaizumi, Naruko and Midousuji were riding side by side, climbing the small slope leading to the inn steadily, but quite fast. They were clearly giving it their all and they nearly collided a few times.

"Eh?" Sakamichi let out a small shriek of surprise when she noticed yet another person climbing the hill a few meters behind them. However the person was catching up with the trio really fast. Almost as if they were riding the gust of wind!

As Sakamichi squinted her eyes to find out who the last man was, Midousuji sped up, turning his pedals like crazy, and got ahead of her two friends from Souhoku by more than ten feet.

"Fuck!" Naruko cursed. Both he and Imaizumi were on the verge of collapsing. The last pursuing guy took the chance and passed them with ease, quickly closing the distance between himself and Midousuji as well. Midousuji nervously looked behind him.

Sakamichi got caught totally off-guard as the unfamiliar bicyclist passed right next to her, leaving the three boys including Midousuji behind. He won the race.

What the hell did just happen? How did he manage to speed up so instantly? Could it be the wind after all?

The sole female spectator's chest started to hurt. She realised she completely forgot to breathe while watching them, holding her breath all this time. The race was really intense.

Naruko and Imaizumi managed to catch up with Midousuji, but still it wasn't enough to get past him, thus ending in the third and fourth place, fourth and fifth if you count Makishima as well.

Sakamichi got into a very uneasy position. All three losing boys seemed upset, but whom she should run after first? Her personality urged her to go cheer the losers up, but whom to choose?

Naruko and Imaizumi were prideful as a pair of young lions. Words of pity would only hurt their egos even more. And Midousuji... She didn't know this side of his, she never saw him in a race, and even if she did see him in the last year's Inter High, she paid absolutely no attention to him, thus she was quite unsure of how he could feel right now. However, judging from the rest of his personality, she presumed he was really dangerous to talk to right now.

Still, something inside her head couldn't leave him alone. She took a few hesitant steps towards him, but she couldn't make it.

"Sakamichi-chan!" someone called her name. Her eyes followed the voice and she saw an extremely handsome, blue-eyed boy waving at her. The boy who won the race.

With a bright smile, he took a few long steps towards her and when he got within her reach, he hugged her abruptly.

"Ugh," Sakamichi let out a choked gasp as he pressed her against his chest. Her cheeks turned into a pair of red tomatoes. She had no idea who he was... At least for the very first moment.

Then, she remembered his scent, fresh like mountain breeze. It was the boy she met last year on the Inter High!

"M-Manami-kun?!" she moaned, looked at him and pushed her glasses up her nose.

"So you remember me, Sakamichi-chan!" he beamed happily and let her go, but only slowly and somehow reluctantly.

Oh yes, she remembered him well. During the last year's Inter High, she'd run into him in a convenience store while shopping in the evening of the second day. They started to chat and he even walked her back to the hotel even though he had a bike with him and it was raining heavily. Well, he talked mostly about hills and bikes, but Onoda still found the conversation agreeable. He treated her so nicely that she got a slight crush on him. This crush of hers turned out to be pointless though, because he seemed to have a girlfriend, a really cute girl with pigtails and glasses.

... And there he was, hugging Sakamichi like that?!

"L-Long time no see, Manami-kun," Onoda stuttered. She noticed Midousuji standing by his bike a few meters away. He was giving them a really weird look before turning away and disappearing on his bike behind the inn.

"Long time no see! What a surprise to find you here! Toudou-san, why didn't you say Sakamichi-chan was coming too?" Manami looked at his ex-upperclassman.

"I didn't know you two were on such good terms with each other," Toudou grinned, emphasizing the good terms part.

"W-We have met on the Inter High, but we haven't spoken since," the girl explained quickly. She was both grateful and annoyed about the hug. After all, Midousuji saw that – she couldn't afford any more complications before making up her mind about her feelings to him.

"I'm looking forward to spending more time with you, Sakamichi-chan," Manami smiled, got on his bike and rode away, leaving the speechless girl behind.

After that, Toudou showed everyone their rooms. Everyone except Midousuji. He seemed to have disappeared. Naruko and Imaizumi headed straight to the hot springs, mentioning that they might ride some more later that afternoon. Makishima spent time discussing things with Toudou. It seemed they were in disagreement about something.

Sakamichi had been left all alone, wondering if she should go for a walk or read her comics.

"Little Glasses, what's with the gloomy face?" Toudou asked when he found her roaming aimlessly through the corridors of his family's inn.

"I-I don't know what I should do now," she replied sincerely.

"Why don't you go to the hot springs?" he offered.

"Y-Yeah, I guess I could," she admitted but didn't seem particularly happy about it.

"Are you feeling lonely?"

"Maybe? Everyone will be gone on the road later and..."

"And you won't have anything to do, right?" Toudou finished the sentence for her.

Not really, she had plenty to do, she brought a lot of comics she didn't read yet, but it would be nice if she could spend time with others too. If only she'd brought her granny bike with her...

"Little Glasses, come with me! I'll show you something," Toudou winked at her, grabbed her slim wrist and led her somewhere.

Soon, Sakamichi found herself in a garage-like building, except there was no car, only bikes. She clearly recognized Naruko's and Imaizumi's road racers. Makishima's bike was also there – along with Makishima himself. He was sitting on a little stool, messing around with the bike's chain.

"Toudou! I said NO!" he hissed as soon as he saw his boyfriend with Onoda.

"Quiet, Maki-chan! Let her decide!"

"D-Decide? What is it about?" the girl blinked. Toudou took her to a less sparkly but a very well-preserved road racer.

"This is my old bike, Little Glasses!" he announced solemnly. "I'm still using it from time to time when I can't ride my usual bike or when I get a bit sentimental, so it's properly serviced and everything..."

"Oh god..," Makishima facepalmed behind him.

"Shush, Maki-chan, let me speak. How do you like it, Little Glasses?" Toudou asked.

"Well, it's a nice bike," she shrugged.

"You think so?! Of course you think so! It is mine after all! Anyway, what I'm trying to say is... you could try riding it. The frame is one size smaller than the one I'm using now. You should be fine if we adjust the height of the seat and maybe the handlebars. I think I could even find some old jerseys I used to wear when I was smaller."

Sakamichi stared at him as if he was the real Sleeping Beauty, the fairy tale one.

"C-Can I really use this bike?" she asked in disbelief.

"Mhm!" he nodded his chin.

"Toudou! I told you not to give it to her! She's a girl! The bike is too big for her!" Makishima protested.

"So what if she's a girl? And the bike isn't that big anyway! Let her have fun too!" Toudou argued. It really sounded like a quarrel of parents about their child's well-being.

"It will be your fault if something bad happens to her!" Makishima sighed, resigning on saying any more.

The girl was so thrilled to try riding the elegant, slim bike! She'd never sat on anything else than her comfy granny bike, and the small, extra light saddle of the road racer was completely unfamiliar to her girly buttocks. The position her body found itself in when she sat on the saddle was absolutely atrocious.

Her butt was so sky-high it would surely feel like a queen of butts if butts had any self-consciousness, and for this one occasion Sakamichi was kind of glad she didn't have much of cleavage because it would probably fall out of the boat-cut neckline of her shirt. Oh, and her intimate girly regions quite hurt. Quite a lot, actually.

Still, despite of all the discomfort she felt, the girl couldn't help but smile.

"How is it? You can reach pedals just fine! Is the seat height ok?" Toudou asked her, grinning at the sight of her happy expression.

"I-It feels weird, but it's kinda interesting! I wanna try riding it!" she replied.

"Are you sure, Onoda?" Makishima sighed again while holding the handlebars, keeping the bike from swaying from side to side as she was trying to sit on it again.

"Yeah, Makishima-san! If it's possible, I'd like to be able to ride with everyone else!" she said confidently. Well, she knew very well she wouldn't be able to ride with the same pace as them. After all, they were all bicycle racers. Makishima and Toudou looked at each other, thinking the very same thing.

"So it's decided! Get off and let's take the bike out!" Toudou said.

Staying true to his word, he let Onoda ride the bike in front of the inn. She had troubles with balance at first and trajectory of her movement was really fickle and generally all over the place, but after a few minutes of wavering back and forth she finally got it right and left both older boys surprised.

Toudou looked like he was about to burst in tears of happiness.

"Look at the kiddo, Maki-chan, we raised her so well," he whined jokingly. Or at least Makishima hoped it was just a joke, or else he'd have to slap him.

"Don't even start, Toudou!" he gritted his teeth.

The two "parents" then gave their "daughter" a little lecture about changing gears and showed her maps of the area, telling her about the route they would take themselves in case she would end up alone. It was an easy course, suited for inexperienced bikers. Toudou probably wanted to give Makishima a break after the journey from Chiba.

It truly felt like a dream when she rode behind Makishima and Toudou on the borrowed road racer, in a borrowed jersey with also-borrowed helmet on her head a half an hour later. Being a manager of a bicycle racing club, she was so close to these quick yet elegant bikes, but at the same time she was miles away from being able to ride one. Well, she never really wished for it and she had a manager role to play, but now the situation was totally different!

She was free to do what she wanted and Toudou gave her the means to do it. Sakamichi's gratitude to the handsome young man was beyond infinite. Maybe that's why she was grinning like an idiot when she followed the two men.

"See Maki-chan? She can ride just fine!" Toudou laughed.

"Yeah, well... Sakamichi, take your time!" Makishima called behind his back.

They were about to reach a rather steep slope of the mountain.

"Eh? What do you mean?" the girl wondered.

"It's a mountain and we are both climbers! We'll have a little race if it's ok with you, Little Glasses," Toudou explained.

Climbers, oh yeah. The riders who are especially good in conquering up-hill courses.

"S-Sure, it's fine," she stuttered, scared a little she'd be left alone.

"Don't overwork yourself, alright? Ride on your own pace. It's ok if you get down and push the bike up the hill," Makishima shared a few fatherly advices and both he and Toudou sped up so quickly it startled the girl so much she nearly fell of her bike.

"We will wait for you on the top, Little Glasses!" she heard Toudou yelling before they disappeared from her sight.

Two young men reached the top. Toudou was the first one to reach the highest point of the road, granting him victory in their little race. It wasn't that surprising though. These hills were his realm. He grew up in this picturesque area and he climbed this mountain many times before.

The riders left the main road and stopped at the scenic overlook with a parking lot. They rested their bikes against metallic railing, took their bottles with energy drinks and chatted about good old times.

Speaking of good old times...

"We are all alone, Maki-chan," Toudou smirked, returned his bottle to the bottle holder and came closer to the other man.

"No, Jinpachi! I'm against whatever you're trying to hint with your lame advances!" Makishima bitched and turned away.

"You just called me by my first name. I know what that means! You can't fool me! Wahaha!" Toudou laughed and started to play with a strand of Makishima's long hair.

"Stop it, Onoda is on her way. I don't want her to see my dick again," Makishima protested.

"Come on... She's a beginner and the slope is really steep. It will take her a while before she appears. We have plenty of time," Toudou reassured him and gently pulled him closer.

"God dammit Jinpachi," Makishima cursed as Toudou's hand started to roam over his crotch, but Toudou silenced him with a kiss before he could say anything else.

"Don't be shy, Maki-chan. It's not like it's our first time, is it. Play with me a little," Toudou encouraged him and it somehow worked. The palm of Makishima's hand grazed the front of the other man's racing pants.

"Geez, Jinpachi, you're hard already?" he asked.

"I couldn't help it, I was looking forward to your visit so much," the dark haired man purred, enjoying Makishima's touch while repaying him the same way.

It took only a few moments till their pants were halfway down their thighs and their crotches were completely uncovered and pressed tightly against each other. It was starting to get a bit messy. The air around them was filled with scent of sweat and sex.

Luckily, since the road wasn't that frequented, there weren't any passing cars that could disturb their intimate moment.

Yes, absolutely no cars whatsoever.

"Makishima-san! Toudou-san!" The familiar girly voice cut through the heavy air. It sounded so enthusiastic!

They didn't notice her coming on the road, but now, the crazy girl was riding right towards them across the parking lot.

"I climbed the hill and it wasn't even...," she continued as she approached them. Then she noticed what exactly they were doing. "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" she shrieked, twisted the handlebars to the right so suddenly she fell off the bike, got up again and still apologising, she quickly returned to the road and disappeared behind the trees.

Makishima and Toudou stood there completely speechless and flabbergasted.

"She just saw your dick again, Maki-chan," Toudou informed his boyfriend because he didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah. I've noticed," Makishima whined. "What the hell was she doing here? Did she really climb the hill so fast?!"

"Who cares," Toudou shrugged. "Now, touch me, Maki-chan! She saw us, now we have nothing to fear anymore," he moaned and caressed Makishima's erection. Nothing to fear indeed. Unless Naruko and Imaizumi pass them as well or something.

"Damn, you're hopeless," Makishima complained, but he sounded quite content.

Meanwhile, Onoda was pedalling downhill, blushing uncontrollably. She saw them do it again... It almost fell like she pedalled so quickly to get away from the awkward situation.

Much later, in the evening she returned to the inn and after collapsing on tatami in her own room, she decided to give it a shot and drag her exhausted being to the hot springs part of the inn.

She'd been riding the bike for the whole afternoon and it really showed. Her legs were so wobbly Sakamichi suspected the bones in them got somehow assimilated by her body. She had no control over them any longer. It was a miracle they still took her where she intended to go.

However, once she washed her sweaty, hurting body thoroughly and submerged herself into the scalding water of the totally empty outdoor pool, it felt as if she entered a higher level of existence. She left her washing towel folded at the edge of the pool. Sakamichi was a shy girl and normally she'd feel troubled about being completely exposed, thus using the towel to cover as much as she could, but she was one of a very few female visitors staying in the inn right now, so it was unlikely she'd have to share the ladies' part of the hot spring with anyone.

Humming the Love Hime opening theme as always when she felt good, she started reminiscing about the day. Biking was really fun, even though she was mostly alone. She met a few of the Hakogaku guys on the road though. All of them seemed pretty surprised to see her on Toudou's bike, but other than that their reactions were fairly nice and supportive.

She also met Kinjou and Tadokoro, her ex-upperclassmen, whom she remembered a little, but never had a chance to talk to them because they'd graduated before she joined the bicycle racing club. She concluded they were both really nice after a little conversation with them, and their meeting gave her a nice fuzzy feeling.

Despite all of that, she was a bit disappointed she couldn't meet her closest friends on the road, Naruko and Imaizumi. About Midousuji... who knows where he went. Sakamichi felt quite bitter about it. Her friends were the ones she'd wanted to ride with the most.

"Lovely chance, Pettanko-chan," she murmured and smiled optimistically. Surely she can show them she's able to ride a road racer tomorrow. Resting her head against the rock behind her, she wondered whether she'd drowned if she accidentally fell asleep. She was so exhausted it was totally plausible to take a little nap in spite of the location. It didn't matter she'd heard splashing coming from the inside of the inn. Someone was washing themselves in the inner bathroom before entering the hot springs, most likely in the male part.

"Makishima-san is really bold, doing that kind of thing on the road like that," she suddenly heard Naruko's voice. It woke her up completely and left her curious about the topic. Had Naruko meant the thing she thought he'd meant? The same inappropriate situation she'd witnessed herself earlier? On the top of the hill?

"He did what?" someone else asked. She'd heard the voice before and if she remembered correctly, it belonged to Arakita.

"He and Toudou-san were fucking on one of the overlooks," Naruko replied. "We saw them when we were passing by, right, Hotshot?"

"Ah," Imaizumi admitted reluctantly.

"Fuck, don't they have any manners?!" Arakita complained.

"That's what people do when they're in love, Yasutomo," Shinkai said in condoning tone.

"Shut up, if you start talking about you and Fuku-chan... Why are you even munching on the bar again? We're in the fucking hot springs! Toudou would be so pissed if he knew."

"Where is he anyway?" Fukutomi, who was there as well, asked in a deep voice.

"Somewhere with Makishima," Kinjou replied.

"What Kin-chan really means is, they're somewhere making babies," Arakita grinned. Imaizumi blushed at the idea.

"What is wrong, Hotshot? Blushing like thaaaat," Naruko poked him.

"Shut it, Naruko," Imaizumi blushed some more.

"HAHA! Are you shy, Imaizumi?!" Tadokoro asked and smacked his back.

"Damn right he is! See? He's even wearing the towel around his ass!" Arakita joined the verbal bullying. "You're a good little boy after all!"

"Please leave me alone!" Imaizumi turned away.

"Hotshot! Real men should walk around naked proudly while they are enjoying the soothing atmosphere of hot springs, kah kah kah!" Naruko laughed in his typical theatrical way.

"Right! We don't have anything to hide anyway! We're all men, Imaizumi!" Tadokoro laughed too and he sounded like a grandpa bear.

"Please don't lump me together with you two, Tadokoro-san," Imaizumi gulped.

"Just give up and uncover yourself, Imaizumi. There's no place for the towel among us," Kinjou patted his shoulder fatherly.

"Even you, Kinjou-san...," Imaizumi gasped.

"Hey, hey, Kin-chan, if you want to see another dick so badly, just wait till Izumida appears with his Long Sharp Lance," Arakita pouted.

Fukutomi, in spite of his stone face, burst out laughing.

"Wait, does he really call it that way?" Naruko blinked.

"He didn't back in high school. But he totally should," Shinkai smirked and opened another energy bar.

"ANOTHER! Which is it?! Third one?" Arakita yelled.

"Fourth," Shinkai corrected him.

"FOURTH?! Where are you pulling them from, your ass?!"

"That's a secret, Yasutomo," Shinkai winked and did his signature kapow pose.

Sakamichi was sitting in the water, enjoying the rather funny, yet little perverted chatting of the boys. She was blushing and holding back her giggles and wondered if Midousuji was there with them.

Everything was funny and nice, until the chatting group of mostly naked young men left the inner parts of the baths and entered the outdoor area with the pools... on the very same side as Sakamichi.

Her brain was going to explode. It somehow seemed like her eyesight sort of improved during her biking, because she never thought she could see the inappropriate bodily parts of the unsuspecting boys so clearly even without her glasses.

Maybe she just had a really vivid imagination. Yeah, she knew now: male genitalia came in various shapes, sizes and designs. And balls and foreskins and pubic hair and OH MY GOD.

Being taken by the conversation about the Long Sharp Lance, they still didn't notice her.

"I'M SORRY!" Sakamichi yelled in her loudest voice, at the maximum capacity of her lungs, before they saw her sitting in the water. At the same time, she covered her eyes with her hands, even though it was already too late. She'd seen everything...

"What the fuck?!" Arakita jumped up once he noticed the girl, or to be more exact, her absolute lack of clothes, which was inevitable since they were in the hot springs.

"Onoda-chan! What the hell are you doing here?!" Naruko screamed. Too bad Onoda had her face hidden. Otherwise she could see the panic in boys' faces as they started covering themselves with their towels. Now they all envied Imaizumi's decision to wear the towel around his hips.

"This is male part of the hot springs," Kinjou added and didn't sound like his usual collected self at all.

"I... I guess I must have gone into the wrong door and... ah... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to see anything... but I kinda did see everything and... aaaah...," she stuttered, fidgeted in the water and the little they could see from her face was red like a basket of cherries.

"W-Where is your towel, Onoda?!" Imaizumi asked. His voice was trembling a little.

"O-Over th-there, I will get it and leave and...," she mumbled, turned and started crawling out of the pool.

"Are you retarded?!" Arakita yelled when he saw the nether regions of her body.

"D-Don't crawl out of the water like that, dammit!" Naruko joined. Shinkai smirked and kapowed her booty.

"Stop it, Shinkai," Fukutomi said with his stone poker face. Kinjou facepalmed.

"FUCK, I CAN'T TAKE IT, DAMMIT!" Arakita roared, his face red just like Onoda's scalded butt cheeks, and he ran away, disappearing in the building.

"He had a boner," Shinkai whispered to Tadokoro, who gave him a shocked look as if he was a father that just learned his daughter is seeing some nasty thug.

"Wait, Onoda! I will get the towel for you!" said Imaizumi and quickly walked to her towel and handed it to her, turning away modestly.

"T-Thank you, Imaizumi-kun," she smiled gratefully, but she had obviously had a hard times even talking.

"Well, it didn't really help, did it," Naruko gasped and looked desperately at Tadokoro. The towel was completely wet and since it was no more than a white piece of cloth, it was extremely transparent and stuck to Sakamichi's body, not really hiding much.

"Oh god," Imaizumi sighed.

"I... I'm getting a bit dizzy. I guess I stayed in the water too long...," Onoda moaned. Yeah, that. Or it was the amount of dicks she'd just witnessed that was making her dizzy.

As if it wasn't enough, Izumida appeared, striding majestically to the pool, showing his Andy and Frank and...

"...L-Long Sharp... Lance," Sakamichi gasped.

"Shinkai-san, what happened? I met Arakita-san running away, holding his crotch for some reason...," Izumida asked.

That was the last drop. That was the end of the girl. Sakamichi's head started spinning and she lost stability, falling right to the ground. Luckily Imaizumi noticed and swiftly caught her into his arms, stopping her fall.

"Naruko! Don't just stand there like that! Give me a hand!" Imaizumi hissed at the redhead boy who was completely speechless.

"I'll help, Imaizumi. Let's get her out of here," Kinjou offered and joined Imaizumi in an attempt to salvage the girl from her damnation.

"You're not gonna help, Juichi?" Shinkai asked and opened yet another energy bar. He'd accidentally dropped the fourth one on the floor when Onoda yelled she was sorry.

"No," Juichi shook his head.

"Why?" Tadokoro looked at him.

"I'm not strong enough..."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary****:**** Sakamichi is a bit embarrassed about what happened in the hot springs (duh), but she gets better while watching Love Hime with Imaizumi. Then she goes to bed and that's when things get interesting.**

**Notes: Rule63!Onoda (but you should be aware of that by now :D); unlike the previous chapter, this chapter has MOSTLY Midosaka and not much else to offer. Story progress is close to none and I apologise for it. Also, fluff. Also also, I don't know about the rating, well it has boobs so... yeah. Enjoy!**

After a half an hour of soaking in the hot water along with their seniors, Imaizumi and Naruko left the hot springs, both of them dressed in cosy yukatas. Naruko's face was still blushing a little after the incident with Onoda, even though he was trying to pretend it was the hot water's fault.

"Where is she anyway?" he asked the taller guy as they walked towards their room. Imaizumi looked at him with annoyed expression.

"What, now you're worried about her?" he questioned the redhead.

"Shut up, Hotshot! Of course I'm worried about her!" Naruko yelled right away as if he offended in a way that couldn't be easily forgiven.

"Well it didn't seem like that earlier. You didn't even help me when she fainted," Imaizumi commented and his lips twitched.

"H-How could I?! Unlike the frigid you, I'm a proper healthy, teen guy! On top of that, I'm a proper gentleman too! I wouldn't touch a naked girl if she didn't ask me to!" Naruko protested.

Imaizumi gave him a doubting look. A proper gentleman indeed. He clearly remembered all of Naruko's comments about Kanzaki's boobs back in high school.

"So if she was, let's say, drowning, you'd let her drown because you wouldn't touch her?" Imaizumi wondered.

"Stop it with what ifs! I would help her, sorry to disappoint you!" Naruko roared and sounded even more offended.

"What's with that anyway? Her nudity caught you quite by surprise. I thought you've seen naked girls before," Imaizumi smiled slyly. It was quite enjoyable to annoy Naruko like that. After all, he wasn't the one whose dick Onoda saw.

"I had, but none of them was Onoda-chan, dammit!" the boy looked away in embarrassment.

"You sound like you never expected Onoda to be a girl," Imaizumi smirked. Naruko was way more experienced with girls, but Imaizumi was the more mature one of the two.

"I... I knew she was a girl obviously, but seeing her like that... Let's just say I could continue living without it!" Naruko's blush deepened.

"What, didn't you like what you saw?" Imaizumi continued to make fun of him and his obviously conflicted feelings.

"I did, that's the problem! Who would've guessed, she actually HAS boobs. Small ones, but they are definitely there and they are quite lovely too. Fuck," he slapped his own forehead.

"It seems like you're totally losing it...," the taller boy chuckled.

"Nah, I'm ok now. But I wasn't back there! To tell you the truth, Arakita-san wasn't the only one having a problem down there... Wait, why am I telling you these things?! I've asked you something and you haven't replied! How is she?" Naruko barked.

"She'll be fine. We left her resting on the couch in the lounge," Imaizumi replied.

"What... Resting?! Just like that, n-naked?" the redhead gasped in shock. How could they? Kinjou seemed so much more responsible than that!

"As if we'd do something like that when the inn if full of men! Kinjou-san dressed her in a yukata too," Imaizumi said and HE turned away this time, trying to hide his own embarrassment. After all, he never expected to see Sakamichi naked. He never had a crush for her or anything, but just like Naruko, he was a healthy young man.

"Oooh, so you couldn't do that yourself, Hotshot," Naruko smirked.

"I would do that, but Kinjou-san offered to do it first so I let him," the tall boy pouted. "Anyway, wanna check on her? I'm going to see her right now," he changed the course of the conversation.

"I'd... I'd rather not see her right now. I'll wait till the dinner. Now I need to meditate or something. You know, to forget about her girly parts. Thank god yukatas are so baggy...," he sighed, then kept quiet and blushed some more, "Damn, what am I saying?! Yukatas are way too sexy!"

"Just stop thinking about her that way and it'll be fine," Imaizumi shook his head and let the troubled boy enter the room they were sleeping in. Then, he headed to the lounge.

Sakamichi was laying there on the couch, her wet hair wrapped in a dry towel and her legs from calves downwards were sticking out of her yukata. Just like Kinjou had left her. She was still unconscious, but coming closer Imaizumi could tell she was peacefully sleeping now. He sat on the couch beside her with a sigh of relief.

"Uh?" she murmured and raised her head, trying to focus her eyes on him.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

A huge smile appeared on her face as she recognized his voice.

"Imaizumi-kun! Yeah, I'm fine! I took a little nap, didn't I?" she laughed innocently.

"Yeah, sort of. Do you remember what happened?" he looked at her with certain curiosity.

"I was riding a road racer all afternoon so I guess I fell asleep after soaking in the hot... O... Oh...," she froze and immediately turned red.

"So you remember... You fainted while getting out of the pool," Imaizumi told her.

"I... I could see... almost everyone... even Naruko... didn't I...," she gasped.

"Yep, that's right," he admitted, so very glad he didn't listen to his seniors and kept the damn towel around his hips.

Sakamichi was getting a bit dizzy again. Foreskins... Balls! Oh.

"D-Did you guys... see me?" she wondered.

"Well, yeah. Some parts of your body were quite exposed when you crawled out of the water," he nodded.

"Oooh," Onoda howled. How was she supposed to get married now?! "A-And who dressed me up in the yukata?" she asked after a minute long howl, once she realised she's dressed in the comfortable cotton fabric.

"Me and Kinjou-san," Imaizumi blushed and looked away.

"T-Thank you... for taking care of me," she stuttered. In spite of her shock, she still had to express her gratitude. "H-Have you seen my glasses?" she asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"There," Imaizumi leaned towards a small table and picked up her tool granting her proper vision, handed it to Onoda and got another word of gratitude from the petite girl. She put them on and made sure to look away at the same time to avoid more awkward looks. Instead, she noticed a remote controller to the lounge's tv. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, but if she was correct, it was about time to...

"Ah!" Sakamichi let out a cheerful shriek when her heroine Kotori appeared on the screen. "It's only last week's recap! I'm right on time!" she smirked to herself. Then she remembered Imaizumi was still in the room. "Uh... I'll be fine now... You can go... if you want," she muttered.

"What, you're embarrassed about watching anime now? After all our trips to Akiba? I'm watching it with you," he pouted and then scowled a little. Yeah, they used to go to Akihabara a lot. He would go on his road racer while she was following him on her granny bike. Of course, he was never going too fast so she could keep up with him. She was always smiling as if she enjoyed the trip way too much and people used to mistake them for siblings, saying things like "what a nice brother, taking his younger sister out for a ride." Those were good times.

Sakamichi grinned happily. It raised her spirits even more, the fact he wanted to watch it with her.

"Did you know that they are showing a special episode for Love Hime anniversary tomorrow?" she asked, getting swallowed in her anime world completely. The two of them then watched their favourite series and totally forgot about their friends and even the hot springs situation.

It wasn't until the ending theme when Onoda asked Imaizumi about something a bit more serious.

"Imaizumi-kun, have you seen Midousuji-kun since you guys arrived?" she wondered, her eyes fixed on the tv screen. She was trying her hardest to pretend she wasn't really interested in what she was asking.

"I've seen him on the road and when I was coming back this evening with Naruko, he passed the inn. He looked like he was nowhere near finished with his training. He's surely still riding his bike," Imaizumi replied but couldn't quite hide his annoyed expression. The lizard wasn't the kind of person he would enjoy talking about right now.

"Oh... I hope he's fine, it's dark outside already," Onoda mumbled.

"Are you worried? About him?" Imaizumi gave her a surprised look.

"Y-Yeah. He's a good person after all," she shrugged.

"Onoda... You claiming and wishing him to be a good person won't make him one for real. You shouldn't worry about a guy like that. He's not worth it," he sighed.

"No, you don't understand. I really believe... no, I KNOW he's a good person, even though sometimes he acts a bit like a bum. I just hope he's ok, that's all," she said with so much confidence Imaizumi decided not to question her beliefs anymore. Sakamichi was glad. She would hate to explain why exactly she thought Midousuji was nice to someone like Imaizumi. She would surely have to describe some personal moments that happened between them and it would totally freak Imaizumi out.

"If you think so," Imaizumi said, got up and told her he's going to the dining room to have the dinner with the others and she was invited to join them in case she could face all the guys without making fuss about their dicks.

Onoda stayed in the lounge a bit longer just to watch the commercials and wonder about various things, mostly Midousuji and foreskins, but eventually even she got up and headed to the dining room, because her belly was a little bit peckish.

The dinner ended up being more pleasurable than she expected. Things were a bit, actually a lot awkward when she entered the room in her yukata and pink cheeks and those boys who had met her in the hot springs immediately turned quiet. Manami then started questioning everyone if it was true they saw each other naked, laughed a lot and stuffed his face with food like a hamster, while Toudou and Makishima were freaking out as if Sakamichi was their little daughter for real, but as soon as they started eating and those who were already legal started to drink, the atmosphere cleared and everyone had a good laugh about it.

Sakamichi was laughing too, telling everyone about a similar situation that happened in one episode of Love Hime, but she couldn't help but feel really troubled about Midousuji. He still didn't show up. When she was leaving for her room around eleven o'clock, she was so upset it was almost painful to bear. She wished someone noticed her worries and spared a few nice words of support and consolation, but no one would. She couldn't expect the others to do something like that. After all, Midousuji wasn't exactly popular among the others. Tadokoro even wondered why he'd come to Hakone, especially since he had nothing to do with either Souhoku or Hakogaku.

Closing the sliding door of her room behind her, she sat on the tatami for a while, stretching her legs and resting her belly after eating so much. Staring at the lamp right under the ceiling, she watched a moth getting crazy about the light source, desperately hitting the glass again and again. And again. It made her smile a little, only to get terribly sad again. Was it how she looked like in her futile attempts to befriend Midousuji?

It might be her imagination, but she felt her eyes getting a little teary. What if something really happened to him? Or was it how he planned to spend the trip? Biking all alone without as much as dining with the others? What if he ended up sleeping in a forest or something? On a tree, hanging upside down like a bat? He was supposed to sleep in the same room as Naruko and Imaizumi. Sakamichi bit her lip. There was no way it would work! They would surely get in a fight!

Sakamichi sat up and decided to prepare her futon. Getting it out of the closet, she unfolded the mattress on the floor.

"Ok, done," she praised herself with a little "fufufu" sound when she looked at the futon. It looked really comfy, but she presumed anything would do after the whole afternoon of riding the fast bicycle. She crawled over the mattress, ready to bury her face in the pillow for a few moments before changing to her pjs. However, her cell phone buzzed, signalizing an incoming message. She grabbed it and read it, only to find out it was from her mom who apologised for forgetting to record today's episode of Love Hime. Sakamichi wondered just how lucky she was to watch it with Imaizumi. Today's episode was so cool and moved the plot forward by a huge bit. She would be totally angry if she'd missed that. And there she was again, losing herself in her beloved anime fantasy world.

Without warning, the sliding doors of her small room opened. Startled by the sudden movement, she stared at the person opening them. Surely someone made a mistake and went into the wrong door – probably one of the tipsy upperclassmen.

"M-Midousuji-kun?" she gasped as her brain realised who the visitor was. He was frowning more than usual and he looked really, REALLY upset for some reason. "I-Is something wrong?" Sakamichi asked, but before she could even finish the sentence, Midousuji entered the room dragging his suitcase behind him and closed the sliding door again.

"Move it, Sakamichi, I'm sleeping in this room too," he snapped at her and kicked her futon away, messing it completely.

"What... Why? Explain it to me, please!" Sakamichi panicked and fixed her mattress while he shoved his suitcase into the wardrobe.

"I think you're disgusting and it will be a pain in the ass to sleep in the same room as you, so if you want to, I strongly suggest you go to the room of your nasty friends and do whatever you feel like doing with them, but if you don't want to leave, that's ok as well. There's no way I'm spending night in the same room as them," he spitted.

Sakamichi sat on her futon and stared at his wide shoulders as he was getting something out of his suitcase. He probably sensed her stare with his lizard senses and looked at her sharply.

"What, Grossmichiii? Why are you staring at me?!" he hissed.

"I... I can't believe it," she gasped. Maybe she fell asleep sometime after preparing her mattress and this was all just a dream...

Midousuji sensed her worries too, leaned to her over the tatami and caught her left cheek between his thumb and index finger, pinching the poor girl quite roughly.

"O-Ouch," Sakamichi whined and rubbed her cheek as soon as he let go of it.

"Well it's not a dream, is it?!" he looked at her.

"I guess not," she nodded. "D-Did something happen? You look quite angry."

"I'm not angry. I'm just tired and I don't feel like dealing with anything you could let out your gross face! I told you to move, didn't I, Sakamichiii, where should I sleep? Hm? Say, Sakamichi, where? If you don't move...," he looked at her with sinister eyes and didn't even blink.

"I will prepare your futon if you want!" the girl quickly offered her help.

"Sakamichi, just how far does your spinelessness go? So gross. Oh well, if you feel like doing it, be my guest. But I'll hurt you if you do it wrong," he pouted, looking really menacing. Sakamichi hesitated for a bit, but then shrugged it off. She knew he didn't really mean it.

She got up and pulled out another mattress from the closet, spreading it over the tatami. She made sure to move her own a bit closer to the wall so their mattresses wouldn't be right next to each other. It would be so inappropriate if they were! Sakamichi was having hard time trying not to blush at the idea of them lying right next to each other – just like lovers!

Midousuji was watching her, sitting on the tatami and cupping his face in his palms.

"Sakamiiichiii, I heard a very interesting thing when I went to the room of the two idiots," he started unexpectedly, his menacing look turning into quite inquisitive one. Who knows if he was so taken with the thing he was about to ask about or about the way she was spreading the blanket over his mattress.

"O-oh? What was it?" she wondered, keeping her voice steady with all her might.

"Weakizumi and the midget were talking about you seeing everyone's wieners. I have trouble believing such gross thing, do you mind explaining it to me?" he asked in seemingly calm voice, which was pretty creepy itself, to be honest.

"Y-Yeah, it's true," Sakamichi nodded, gulped and blushed.

"GROSS!" he croaked, his wannabe composure disappearing within a second.

"I... I went into the wrong door and entered the male part of hot springs by accident. There was no one in there so I didn't realise my mistake right away. I washed myself and entered the outdoor pool all naked and... well, that's when everyone appeared. They were all n-n-naked too, so we kinda... saw each other...," Sakamichi explained and felt like she should bury herself alive.

"Groooooss! I never thought you'd do something disgusting like that! Gross, groooooss! On the other hand, it's impossible to believe you did it by mistake! Just admit it, Pervymichi, it was all on purpose, right?! You wanted to see everyone's wieners, am I riiiight?!" he bitched.

"Q-Quiet, or else others will hear you!" she started shooshing him in a not too forceful way.

"What a shame, Sakamichi, so gross... Showing your body to everyone... just so you could see them naked!" he shook his head while looking at her with despise.

"That's not how it was, Midousuji-kun! I really did that by mistake! It's not like I'm happy knowing how they look naked!" Sakamichi shrieked and placed a pillow on his mattress with shaky hands.

"Do you think I believe you? What a shaaame! So groooss... And to think I even considered showing you mine if you just asked, what a stupid and gross boy I was," he mumbled, waving his hands around dramatically.

"...S-Showing me yours... what?" Sakamichi blinked.

"What? Sakamichiii, you're not making sense," he pouted, pretending he never said something like that.

"What did you mean, Midousuji-kun?! Showing me your what exactly? Did you mean... w-w-wi... willy?" Sakamichi gasped as if she was short on oxygen.

"GROSS! Sakamichi, the way you call it... It's too gross, eugh!" he pushed her away and fell onto his futon.

"B-But you meant that, right? The... pe-pe... penis...," she stuttered. "Y-You would show me yours... if I asked?"

"Ooooh, maaaybe. But the possibility is gone now, Sakamichiii, long gone. Because you've seen theirs. Now you don't have to see mine! Because now you know what wieners look like," he laughed.

"I... I knew how they looked like to begin with!" she panicked.

"Oooh?" he made an incredibly dumb face.

"Y-Yeah! I just hadn't seen any in person. But now...," she sweated. "L-Look, it's not like I wanted to see one so badly, ok? I can live without seeing yours just fine!" she burst out. She was slowly losing it; the embarrassment was too strong.

"Are you sure, Sakamichiii?" he asked with his eyes of a dead fish fixed on her.

"Y-Yeah... I think," she tried to swallow the redundant saliva that kept gathering in her mouth, but her throat was not willing to cooperate.

"You think?... Aaanyway, Sakamichiii, are you sleeping in the yukataaa?" he asked her, completely changing the topic. Or at least Sakamichi thought he did.

"Eh... No, now that you mention it, I was about to change into my jammies," she scratched her nose and a brand new bomb of redness exploded over her cheeks.

"And what are you waiting for? Come on, change then," Midousuji said. Sakamichi stared at him and considered running away.

"W-W-What...," she let out something, not really sure what kind of sentence she wanted to say.

"It's only fair, right? Everyone else already saw you, I don't see why I should be the only one left out," he smirked. "Well, you're still really disgusting and most likely you won't dare to do something like that, riiight? But, it could be pretty interesting! So go on, change! If you actually do it, I will reward you however you want."

Sakamichi bit her trembling lower lip. It sounded really tempting, the rewarding part. She could ask for that super rare and expensive Love Hime Blu-ray collection, but then again, changing her clothes in front of him... She had never wished to be able to do the magical girl morphing sequence so badly in her life.

Oh well, it was just her boobies he would see. Sakamichi was quite positive she could pull on her sleeping shorts without him seeing anything. And everyone else saw already, so it was ok! At that moment, it didn't occur to her that these two situations couldn't be compared at all. Accidentally flashing your body to a bunch of naked guys wasn't the same as undressing in front of a single boy. On top of that, she had no idea what their relationship was. Especially not after his words. She could have sworn he sounded a bit jealous that others saw her naked.

"I get it! I will s-s-sho...," Sakamichi started, her voice full of resolve and fighting spirit even though she was stuttering like crazy. Too bad he wouldn't let her finish.

"Slooow, too slow, Sakamichiii. I'm not interested anymore. You don't have any boobs to show anyway," he made fun of her and rolled to his other side, turning his back to the girl. "If I wanted to see a body with a totally flat chest, I'd just look in the mirror," he added.

"Oh... Alright then," Onoda sighed, possibly little disappointed about the fact that she wouldn't get anything she wanted from him, but then she smiled happily.

"You really are a nice guy, giving me privacy by looking away," she snickered, got her pyjamas from her suitcase and started undoing the sash of her yukata, her back turned to the boy as well. Slipping her arms out of the yukata's sleeves, she let the comfortable cotton clothing fall to her waist.

That's when she felt a warm blow somewhere between her shoulder blades. Before she could figure out what it was, a long arm appeared in her field of vision and grabbed the top of her jammies that was lying in front of her, just a few seconds before she grabbed it herself to put it on.

"A-Ah!" she chirped in surprise. In that instant, she realised it was his hot breath she felt on her back a second ago. He clearly leaned over her body to reach the top of her pyjamas, but why would he... oh no, he wanted to steal it!

She quickly turned around, so quickly her lower back would scold her if it had a voice to do that, and tried to capture the piece of clothing before he could take it away completely. Sadly, she wasn't fast enough, so she sort of launched herself forward in her pursuit. It made her look super desperate.

"I'll show you, Grossmichiii, a good guy, good guy, blah blah! I've told you before I'm not one, so stop saying I am! It's...," he teased her while stealing her pyjamas. He didn't expect her to jump after it, so when she crashed head-first right into his chest, it took him by surprise. "... Gross," he finished his sentence as he stared at the pale, small and naked back from above.

"O-Ouch," whined Sakamichi.

"Why did you headbutt me, Sakamichiii?" he wondered, watching her spine with certain fascination.

"It... wasn't on purpose, I p-promise...," she stuttered. "I wanted to get the top back..." Her forehead was still resting against his sternum.

"Well, that should teach you I'm not a good guy, right?" he pouted, but actually, he felt a bit nervous.

"I-It's not a big deal. It was just... a little prank, r-right? F-Friends make those," she said and took a deep breath. He smelled really nice, the same as the shampoo in the hot springs. He clearly took a bath before, despite having normal clothes on instead of a yukata.

Again, the friends stuff she kept repeating. Friends... Who would want to be friends with such girl?

"I take it back," he mumbled slowly. Sakamichi flinched. What did he take back?

"Y-You mean the part about being a good g-guy?" she wondered. She also questioned herself why she kept her forehead on his damn breastbone, although it was probably because she was too shy to look at him.

"No way. The part about no boobs, stuuupid," he cackled.

"O-Oh... You saw... o-obviously you did, right... ahahah," she forced a laugh that was meant to sound light-hearted. Well, it didn't. Not quite, but what she should do now?! The moment she raises her head, he will see her chest again! It felt like she was trapped in this position.

Midousuji could see how anxious she was and in spite of himself, he could relate to that feeling as well. He was walking in the very same shoes. The best way to deal with this situation would be to cover her back with the cursed top of her pyjamas – he knew that. There was no way a strategic person like him wouldn't know. So what the hell was his hand doing, hovering an inch above her spine, obviously searching for the best place to land?

It felt like he had just touched a small, scared animal when his fingertips came in contact with her soft, warm skin. She flinched again and tensed up so much.

"Mi... Mi-Mi... Mi...," she made a few incoherent sounds.

"Whaaat? Mi-mi-mi, what's wrong Sakami-mi-mi-michiii? The way you speak is gross," he commented only to find out his voice was really unsteady as well, even though the little teasing in her name was merely an act. He was the one being gross right now.

"I'm sorry," she whined a little. Again that defeatist, submissive way she sometimes spoke and by sometimes Midousuji meant nearly all the times. As ridiculous as it seemed he nearly started pitying her. A tiny fragment of his inner self wondered if there was something he could do to cheer her up a little. To show her there's no need to apologise for things all the time, especially when they weren't her fault. She might as well apologise for nasty weather.

Oh god it was so annoying. He simply had to make it stop!

"C-Can... Can I have the top... back?" she wondered.

"Nooo waaay," he refused. "Because I'm a bad guuuuy," he added, sticking his tongue out. Sakamichi couldn't see that though.

"I don't w-want to sleep n-naked," she whined. Midousuji didn't say anything. He, however, moved his hand on top of her back. Actually, that kind of movement had a very specific name. It was called "caress".

Oh no, what was he doing! It was so gross, so wrong, so disgusting, so _agreeable_ thus absolutely repulsive!

Sakamichi shivered in surprise and moaned below her breath so he had hard times hearing it, but he did nevertheless and oh, her voice sounded so erotic for some reason. He wondered if he was going crazy, thinking a girl like Sakamichi could sound erotic.

Curiosity got the better of him and he kept caressing her narrow back, his strokes getting longer and slightly more intense. He never expected touching her naked skin with his bare hands could feel so good. After all, he wore gloves almost all the time.

Losing himself in the tender caressing, he nearly missed the moment she moved. Sakamichi slowly raised her hands, embraced his waist and clumsily slipped them under the hem of his shirt, her tiny fingertips tracing his angular spine, one vertebra after another.

"What are you doing, Sakamichiii?" he asked her in disbelief.

"Eh... I... I thought it... felt n-n-ni-nice, so I... wanted to make you feel like that too,... I suppose," she explained, her voice cracking a lot.

"Gross!" he yapped.

"R-Right... It is, i-i-isn't it...," she admitted sadly. "S-Should I... Should I stop?"

Midousuji noticed, how Sakamichi nuzzled her face to his chest as if she was saddened by the fact she should let go.

"I said it was gross. Not that I want you to stop," he snapped back, thinking the whole situation was getting really awkward. He could even tell his own cheeks were getting warm a little. Really, he, Midousuji Akira, was blushing?

What kind of alternate universe was that?

"O-Ok...," gasped Sakamichi. She seemed so shocked, but surely it was just his imagination. If it wasn't, why would she tug on the hems of his shirt and pulled it over his head without any sort of warning?

"Sakamichiii," he mumbled, watching her as she was modestly folding his shirt on the tatami.

"Uh?" she looked at him. She was trying to hide her breasts, but being like this, he could see them quite well despite her efforts.

"Why did you take it off?" he asked her. Sakamichi felt a few very intense jolts of happiness stirring her belly up. Midousuji was sitting there, suddenly looking away clearly avoiding eye contact. No matter how he was before, right now he looked so shy and innocent.

"I... don't even know, it felt... fair," she shrugged and moved a bit closer to him, the yukata still hanging around her hips.

"Are you ok like this? I can see them very well," he gave her another question while sneakily stealing looks at her naked chest.

"O-Others have seen so... I think I'm ok," she replied and smiled a little.

"What a surprise, Sakamichiii. You're not such a small fry after all. Gross," he commented.

Sakamichi nodded. Gross, gross. No, that's not how she felt. She felt really excited and a little bit scared. She didn't even know what her thoughts about this situation were. The sole driving force at work in this weird moment was the fact that his hand resting on her back felt so incredibly gentle.

She wanted more. Just a little bit more.

Sakamichi lifted her hips off the tatami and sat on her bent legs the proper Japanese way instead. It gave her a few more inches to reach his face more easily, and that's exactly what she did, reached for his face and cupped it with her hands. The look he gave her was priceless. As if he saw Satan or something very similar.

Sakamichi had no idea if she was bringing his face down or if she was hoisting herself up to meet it. She just knew their faces were getting closer to each other. She was totally going to do it, she was going to kiss him like he kissed her that night in the toilet stall.

She still had no idea what her real feelings were. Maybe she was just trying to make sure her hunches were or weren't correct, or she was searching for answers - who knows. But it wasn't like the kiss would hurt them. The last time it was so pleasurable... And it was he who kissed her first, so now it was her turn to return the favour. As his face got even closer, his stare was starting to get really unbearable, so she closed her eyes and the contract was sealed.

Sadly, a distraction reached her ears much quicker than her lips reached his.

"I'm KILLING the two idiots! Let us sleep, dammit, Toudou! Makishima! Fuku-chan, follow me, let's tackle them!" they heard in the corridor. Arakita left his room sounding quite pissed.

"Yeah, Juichi, let's go! Just like the old times!" Shinkai joined the angry guy.

"True, it brings back memories," Fukutomi sighed.

"Shinkai-san, what's happening?" Izumida came out of his room, oiling his pectorals.

"Oh, Izumida! Toudou and Makishima are fucking loudly in the lounge! Wanna check on them?" Shinkai smiled.

Check on them. He really asked if he wanted to check on them. Sakamichi's head began to hurt.

Fucking. Now that her brain started working correctly... it was pretty much where she was headed in this situation, wasn't it?! Both she and Midousuji were topless. Oh.

The reality and the embarrassment hit her really hard. It wasn't like her at all! She would never miss a lovely chance, just like Kotori always instructed girls, but this chance was hardly lovely! It was awkward and hot and kissy and probably even touchy.

"I-I-I will put my jammies on... and go to sleep," she informed him with a very shaky voice. The way she said it really reminded her of that crazy high school boy from that one anime, particularly the one scene in which he "took a potato chip AND ATE IT!" She would totally eat her embarrassment if it was possible, but instead the embarrassment was feasting on her own sanity.

"Gross," said Midousuji, expressing his surprise, shock, disgust and disappointment, all that in the short eloquent word.

She grabbed the piece of clothing and pulled it over her head – wait, was it really that baggy? Or did she lose some weight?

"Sakamichiii, that's my shirt," the boy commented.

"Oh... Oh... I will...," she panicked and wondered if she should take it off again.

"It's mine, but it's ok," he pouted and casually put her pyjama top with Kotori from Love Hime on. It looked extremely funny, being stretched on his chest like that.

"A-Alright... I... I will sleep now," she said, completely dumbfounded at the twist of events. She crawled on her futon and buried her shaking body under the blanket, turning her back on him, trying to wipe her memories of what happened just like the awareness of his presence in the room.

"Sakamichiii," his voice suddenly pierced her skull.

"Y-Yes?" she squeaked.

"Whatever you were trying to do, it was disgustingly gross," Midousuji told her. It pierced her heart as well.

"Y-Yeah, it was, right? I... I don't know what I was trying to do... I... I won't do it again," she said optimistically, but her eyes were getting really itchy. "G-Good night..."

"Gross...," he mumbled as if he was complaining about something. "It's not what I was saying though," he whispered to himself.

Sakamichi didn't hear him say that. She was too busy dealing with the realisation that struck her like a lightning.

Toudou WAS right!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary: Sakamichi spends her day biking and meeting all sorts of people on the road. Of course, Midousuji is one of them.**

**Notes: After the previous purely MidoSaka chapter, the other characters get more space again. Contains Midousuji being an ass (no one is surprised, am I right...) and Onoda being everyone's little princess. Oh gosh, this is so becoming a reverse harem...**

Opening her eyes, a girl sleeping in a t-shirt that was way too big for her realised it was morning already. What a surprise! She thought the night would never end. Not because of what had happened before she went to bed. Instead, it was because of what was happening in her head after the magic was gone and she was trying to fall asleep.

It seemed like she would never be able to sleep peacefully again. Her heart was beating so fast she wouldn't be surprised if Midousuji heard. It was pretty much a miracle she managed to fall asleep. She surely was glad she had.

Sakamichi turned to the side where Midousuji's futon was supposed to be, but it was folded nicely on the tatami along with her pajama top with no traces of the boy.

"Did he get up already?" she wondered quietly and slowly sat up on her mattress, searching for her phone to check what time it was. "Seven? Only seven o'clock and he is already gone?" She couldn't tell if she was glad she didn't have to face him, or disappointed she missed him, because after all, she was sort of planning to ride their bikes together today.

Hoping she'd meet him somewhere in the inn or maybe during the breakfast, she got up, folded her mattress, and decided to take a bath in the hot springs.

Her body felt weird. All of her muscles were a bit stiff, but those on her thighs, lower back, and neck were especially troublesome. She never thought riding the bike was so painful. Was it really how the guys felt every time their rode their bikes? No way, they were surely used to it. Their bodies were trained and familiar with that sort of exercise.

Checking at least five times whether she's entering the right door this time, she kept telling herself the hot bath in the mineral water will surely do her good and help her ease the muscle pain.

Well, wrong. As it boosted her blood circulation, all the soreness and stiffness got even more painful. On top of that, sitting on the rocky bottom of the pool made her realise her butt was not the same butt she had had yesterday. Today's butt was absolutely uncomfortable and somehow sore and probably even bruised in the most delicate parts of its not really vast buttness. Was it due to the extremely tiny bike saddle?

When her bath was over, she had problems crawling out of the pool – that's how badly her body hurt. It clearly showed on her walk, because as soon as she left the baths and took the corridor leading to the residential part of the inn, Arakita who just came out of the door to the male part of the hot springs, called her name. On top of that, in a way she'd expected the least.

"Yo, Onoda-chan!" said the dangerous-looking guy. Onoda couldn't get rid of the feeling he sounded just a little perverted.

"Ah, g-good morning, Arakita-san," Sakamichi replied politely, but her voice was trembling. She was no good dealing with people like him.

"What are you up to?" he grinned.

"I've just taken a bath..."

Well, it was pretty obvious, wasn't it; she was wearing a yukata and towel wrapped around her wet hair.

"What a coincidence. Too bad you didn't join me this time...," he smirked at her.

"I-I've checked at least five times I was entering the right door," Sakamichi explained and tried her best to keep the shitty state of her hurting body away from her face. She didn't want to look like some whining little spoiled princess who couldn't take a day of cycling without moaning how much everything hurted. "I-If you excuse me, I will go and dress into something e-else before breakfast," she excused herself and took a few wobbly steps away to her room.

"Onoda-chan, wait," he stopped her. Her funny walk was too obvious.

"Y-Yes?"

"Everything hurts, am I right?" he asked would-be seriously, but if Onoda bothered to inspect his face properly, she'd notice the really tiny grin he had going on.

"Y-Yeah... Sort of," she nodded.

"Like your thighs and your back and the neck too, right?" he questioned her more.

"Y-Yeah, especially my thighs, but my lower back is killing me too," she smiled nervously. Arakita came a bit closer.

"And your ass too, am I right?"

"A-Ass... N-No, not really," she shook her head as her cheeks grew bright red once more.

"Oh come on, it shows on the way you walk," he waved his hand.

"I... I guess it does hurt a little, yes," Sakamichi admitted.

"A little? You walk like it hurts hella lot," he cackled.

"W-Well," she shrugged, wondering how to get out of this uncomfortable conversation.

"Listen, Onoda-CHAN," he embraced her around her shoulders as if she was his long-term buddy. "Road racer saddles are literally pain in the ass! Back when I started cycling, I had a feeling like my butt had been gangbanged by a bunch of really big cocks, if you know what I mean," Arakita said. Sakamichi stared at him in shock, feeling like her brain exploded as soon as he mentioned the work "gangbanged".

"I... d-don't think I know what you... mean, Arakita-san," she gasped.

"You know, all the bruises and shit," he laughed.

Yeah, she supposed she had bruises in those parts too, but she still couldn't imagine how it felt like being gangbanged by a bunch of really big cocks. She had no idea what it was like to get intimate with a single cock, let alone a whole bunch of them!

Arakita watched her confused face for a while and then sighed.

"You're a virgin, am I right?" he asked casually. Sakamichi started gasping for breath as if his words strangled her.

"K-Kind of," she admitted reluctantly in the end.

"Never mind then," he shrugged. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is: I know how it hurts if you're not used to a bike saddle. There are various special products to ease the pain caused by bruising and irritation of the skin. I could borrow you some, even though I'm not really sure if it's compatible with lady parts..."

"I... I... Thank you for... the offer, but...," Onoda stuttered, but Arakita didn't stop there.

"How does it even work, Onoda-chan?! Lady parts and the tiny bike saddles? I imagine it must feel kinda good? You know, all that rubbing against those extremely sensitive areas...," he pondered, totally prepared to elaborate on that idea until someone shouted his name.

"Arakita! What the hell! I can't believe it's really happening?!" Toudou's voice resonated in the corridor.

"Dammit," hissed Arakita and let go of the stunned girl. "Just as I was about to devour my delicious prey...," he mumbled.

"Arakita! Shoo! Shoo! Leave her alone or I'll hit you with a broomstick you bad wolf you!" Toudou sizzled, grabbed Sakamichi and pulled her closer to him just so she wasn't so close to the other guy.

"Calm the fuck down, Toudou!" Arakita roared.

"How should I calm down? I'm not letting you bully Little Glasses!" Toudou barked back. His voice sounded like a chihuahua's yapping compared to Arakita's growls.

"I wasn't bullying her! I was giving her some friendly advices. Besides, no wolf could leave a sheep that wandered off her herd alone, right?" he grinned.

"Shut up or I'll hit you for real!" Toudou yelled.

"P-Please calm d-down," Onoda stuttered. It didn't sound like they were really fighting, but even this friendly bickering was making her slightly uncomfortable, especially since it was sort of her fault it was happening.

"That I can't do, Little Glasses! I promised Maki-chan to protect you with my body and soul! It's something like a holy mission! It's terrible enough that you accidentally walked into the wrong part of the baths last night," Toudou said in a big voice.

"I-It's not a big deal," the girl shook her head. After all, that was her fault as well.

"Holy mission my ass, Toudou," Arakita sighed and walked away.

"Wait mister! Where are you going? I have a talk with you!" Toudou yelled in almost fatherly tone. Or motherly.

"Shut up! I'm going to wake Fuku-chan up from his strong slumber," Arakita made an excuse which could be both true or false.

"Strong slumber, I will show him strong slumber," Toudou mumbled for himself before looking at Sakamichi: "Are you alright, Little Glasses?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine. But my body hurts from yesterday's cycling," she replied. Toudou laughed and told her how it was no surprise, since it was the first time she rode a road racer. He asked her if she wanted to take a day off, but when Sakamichi expressed her wish to ride the bike with everyone today as well, he looked quite pleased with her decision. He, however, warned her about it, saying her bottom would hurt even more in the evening. The girl shrugged it off and decided to give it a shot and ask about something that had been bothering her for a while.

"Toudou-san... Can I have a question?" Onoda started.

"What is it, Little Glasses?" Toudou asked positively.

"I was wondering... Why did you invite Midousuji-kun along? O-Others don't seem quite fond of him and... It somehow feels like he's bothering them, at least Naruko-kun and Imaizumi-kun," she somehow managed to express what was going on in her head.

"That's right, isn't it. I suppose I took a gamble when I invited him along," the handsome man wondered.

"A gamble?" Sakamichi asked.

"Um! I invited you here so you could sort your thoughts about him, right? But then I thought, maybe having him around could help you find your answers. On the other hand, I knew it would bring a lot of trouble to everyone and could confuse you even more...," he explained.

"I-It's not like it... I can't talk on behalf of the others, but I t-think I found my answers," Sakamichi said quickly.

"Oh? Is that so? That's great, isn't it, Little Glasses!" Toudou smiled.

"Y-Yeah, it's great... probably," she nodded. Well, she was sure about her feelings now, but not about what she should do with them. Express them? Smother them till there's nothing left?

"Well, if you need help with anything, feel free to ask me! I'll be glad to help you if I can. Now, if you excuse me, I promised Maki-chan to take a bath with him," he giggled and left her after caressing the top of her head as if she was a small child.

Sakamichi watched him as he disappeared behind a corner. She was sure sooner or later she'd take his offer and ask him about love related things, but right now she couldn't come up with anything and standing there in the corridor like a statue wasn't very likely to give her any ideas. She returned to her room, changed and headed to get something to eat.

As soon as her bum touched the slender saddle of the borrowed road bike, the petite girl, now dressed in a jersey and riding pants, let out a little moan full of suffering and pain and torture. The cursed saddle seemed like a promise of many hardships that were awaiting her today. Possibly because the saddle itself was pretty hard.

Sakamichi never gritted her teeth so ferociously. Her bum hurt so much, but her wish to catch up with Midousuji was stronger than that. He wasn't in the room when she woke up. She didn't see him at the breakfast either. And, to top it all, his bike was nowhere to be found. That could only mean he was already out there, cycling in the hills of Hakone. Sakamichi was a bit disappointed she had to start all alone, but it had its pros as well. For example, she could whine and curse all she wanted about her hurting bum.

So, the time flew by and she spent another day cycling around. She always made sure not to get too far away from the city of Hakone. Even though she planned to join the others today, most of the time she was turning her pedals all alone. Stopping for a little snack around noon, she met some of the older guys in a little shop near a gas station and although they all treated her nice, she still couldn't help but think naughty thoughts like "all these people... have penises and I saw them all." So even if she considered joining them, she let them leave without her, because it was probably much better for her poor heart.

Cycling for another three or more hours, she stopped at a scenic overlook on the top of the hill and nibbled on a chocolate bar she'd bought much earlier. She found out right away it wasn't really a bright idea. The chocolate bar was melting in the plastic wrap, looking anything but tasty. No surprise it was like that – the big yellow thing in the sky decided to burn the poor girl alive.

Fighting with the melted chocolate, licking it from the wrapping like some sort of small animal, Sakamichi forgot about her wobbly legs for a while. She was so tired, but somehow the exhaustion she felt was more pleasant than bothersome. As she was considering asking Kanzaki Miki and her brother if they could get her some old bike for a reasonable price, she finally spotted the one person whose back she was chasing after the whole day.

Midousuji quickly passed the overlook and began descending down the hill. Sakamichi felt like she was acting completely on an impulse, but what a strong impulse that was! She jumped on her bike, threw the unfinished melted chocolate bar into a trash bin and pedalling like a maniac, she quickly went after him.

Wind was whistling in her ears and her hands started to shake a little, no matter how strong her grip of the handlebars was. She was running so fast downhill, so fast it was scary. It was simply too fast for an inexperienced girl like her. Luckily, Midousuji's slender back appeared in front of her quite soon.

"M-Midousuji-kun! Wait!" she called his name before he could vanish behind the next curve of the road. She had to slow him down if she wanted to ride with him. The speed was too high for her after all.

He looked over his shoulder and indeed, he slowed down. Onoda felt her belly tightening as the distance between them shrank every second.

"Oh, isn't it Sakamichiii," he said when she finally caught up and rode side by side with him. They were still going pretty fast, but it was surely much safer than a few moments ago.

"Y-Yes. Sorry for making you wait for me," Sakamichi quickly apologised.

"Pfff pfff," he let out that weird spitty snigger of his. "So I guess it was true, Sakamichiii. Weakizumi and the midget were talking about something like you riding a bike as well, but I never thought I'd see you on the road," he commented.

"Y-Yeah, Toudou-san borrowed me his bike and I think I'm getting a hang of it now," she gleamed. She was so happy to have caught up with him she had problems hiding her delight. It clearly showed on her face. Midousuji watched her silently for a few moments. Something was wrong.

"Sakamichiii," he said in the end. "There's something on your chin."

"Uh?" she let out a surprised sound. It somehow reminded her of the situation with the slug.

"It looks a bit like a poo... GROSS!" he snickered.

"W-What? NO! It's chocolate! I had a chocolate bar a few moments before but it was totally melted," she wiped it nervously, smearing the sweet smudge even more.

"That's kinda worse," chuckled Midousuji.

"Noooo," Onoda mumbled.

"Why would you even buy a chocolate bar in this hot weather?! Did your brain melt as well? Wasn't it obvious it would inevitably melt?!" The lanky boy obviously had a lot of fun questioning her silly decisions.

"I... I had to buy it, ok? It was a limited edition chocolate bar with Love Hime on the wrapping!" Sakamichi pouted. They finally got down the steep slope, the road was nearly flat now and Sakamichi lost her fear of the speed. She realised it could very well be thanks to riding with him.

"That's gross, Sakamichi. Will you keep the wrapping or what?" he laughed some more.

"I... wanted to keep it, but I threw it away when I saw you," she sighed. Well, it's not like she could store it in her pocket easily. It was smeared in melted chocolate after all.

"Grooooss," he whistled. Sakamichi blinked and then smiled brightly again. Her reaction freaked him out.

"What are you smiling about? Smiling like an idiot, Sakamichiii," he frowned. It annoyed him the girl could smile so happily. He wanted to make fun of her.

"It's just... it's somehow enjoyable, isn't it?" she asked.

"No, it's gross," he snapped back.

"I was thinking about how glad I was to be able to ride a bicycle with you like this... It's great to cycle alone, but with someone else it's so much better," Sakamichi explained dreamily after keeping quiet for a while.

"What's that, Saaakaaamiiichiii?! This isn't some shoujo manga. Stop trying to sound all romantic. It's sickening," he scolded her and sped up a little, just so he rode a few feet ahead of her and she couldn't see his face. However, if she could see it, she would surely notice how mellow his face had become.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound r-romantic or anything... I was just saying what I was really thinking," Sakamichi apologised.

"Then stop thinking romantic things! PIIIIG!" he yelled.

"Y-You think that was romantic?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah! But more than that, it was pretty gross! Don't try pulling that off on me!" he continued and then slowed down to ride side by side with her again.

Sakamichi stared in horror as he reached to her face and pinched her cheek just like last night. That time, it was to make sure she wasn't dreaming. This time, he simply took out his frustration on her, punishing her for her "romantic thoughts".

"O-Ouch, that hurts," she moaned. Midousuji frowned again and quickly wiped the leftovers of the chocolate smudge from her chin with his thumb. Sakamichi had problems keeping her bike steady when he did that. "W-Why did you...," she gasped.

"At least don't think romantic things when there's a piece of shit on your face, nasty little piggy!" he croaked, still quite frustrated about everything.

"It's chocolate! I told you it's chocolate! Just try licking your thumb and you will see! It's delicious!" Sakamichi yapped like an angry puppy.

"Gross! I'm not licking my gross thumb, Piggymichiii! Groooooss, who do you think I am?! Disgusting!" he freaked out.

"Ok...," she sighed and after a brief moment of silence, she added under her breath: "It really is chocolate, though."

Cycling for a few more metres, Sakamichi carefully continued:

"It's gone now, right? T-The chocolate."

"Right. But that's only thanks to me," he nodded.

"Y-Yes, of course. Thank you, Midousuji-kun," she said quickly. "A-Anyway, does it mean that I can s-say romantic things now?" Sakamichi asked and started pedalling a little faster as if she wanted to escape from what she'd just said.

"Gross! Are you stupid, Sakamichiii? You're not allowed to say romantic things to me, EVER! It's disgusting! Go and say them to Weakizumi if you will! Bleugh," he screamed like a banshee behind her back.

"S-Sorry! I was just joking, calm down!" Sakamichi apologised, but she raised her cadence even more. She had no idea what she had meant when she said that...

"Don't joke about such things! It's creepy, are you stupid?" Midousuji yelled some more, realising he started using the word "stupid" nearly as much as his personal favourite "gross", but he couldn't help it as Sakamichi was saying some really silly things!

Besides that, she was pedalling unusually quickly too. An amateur would just laugh at the speed she turned the pedals with – it looked quite comical to be honest – but he, a professional and highly experienced rider knew there was more behind it than met the eye. Her cadence was exceptional. Midousuji felt tiny jolts of excitement running down his spine. At least as far as bikes were considered, this girl was no small fry! The thrill of riding with someone like that made him grin like a madman – even if it was Onoda Sakamichi, the most awkward girl he'd ever met.

He kicked his pedals little harder with an intention to catch up.

"Sakamichiii, where do you think you're going, you silly little piggy!" he called after her, his bitter self astonished about the hints of joy in his voice.

"N-Nowhere, I just sped up a little," she replied nervously.

"No, you merely started turning your pedals like a freak, what's that?" he asked when he caught up again.

"T-That's... what people do when they are scared of something," Sakamichi replied, her reply based on some weird logic. He noticed she said the latter part of the sentence as quiet as she could.

"Scared? Ooooh. Are you scared of me, you small fry Piggymichi?" he asked with a sinister tone.

Sakamichi chuckled. She really chuckled!

"I was a bit scared, but not anymore," she informed him, taking his breath away. "Actually, I'm feeling kinda happy," she added.

"Why is that, Piggy?" he glared at her.

"Well, because you're calling me Piggy! Isn't it somehow cute?" Her cheeks gleamed with red. Midousuji felt a dumb thud in his stomach. As if she punched him in his belly with that blunt optimism of hers.

"NO! It's not meant to be cute!" he protested.

"Well... It is, somehow. It's like a piglet. Piglets are cute," she shrugged.

"Then, what about this? Swiiiine," he suggested.

"Yeah, that's not cute," she nodded with disappointment. Midousuji glanced stealthily in her direction. Her face seemed really sad now. He asked himself why it made him somehow uneasy.

"Stupid Sakamichiii, why do you look so disappointed? It's just a nickname," he shrugged it off.

"You're right," she smiled again. The puzzled boy blinked. He really needed to do something about his head – it was getting full of nonsensical thoughts. Leaning down, he reached for one of his bottles, opened the lid and poured it all over himself. It felt really good. The fresh water wasn't too cold, but it was still cooler than the air surrounding him.

"Ah, so cool!" Sakamichi shrieked, surprised about his actions. She had seen riders doing it during the last year's Inter High, and yes, she actually thought it was rather cool and badass. It proved they were trying so hard they had to cool themselves down. Seeing Midousuji doing that up close made it even more intense, given the nature of her newly discovered feelings.

"You think it's cool? Groooss," he mumbled.

"I do think it's cool!" Sakamichi quickly nodded.

"Why don't you do the same thing? Come on, you're feeling hot too, am I right?" he encouraged her.

"Oh... I am feeling hot! But sadly I have no water anymore. I drank my last sip of it a while ago. I need to get some in the nearby convenience store," Sakamichi replied. Midousuji grinned.

"Well in that case why don't you take mine?" He reached to his other bottle. "You can pour it over yourself if you dare. It feels really gooooood," he grinned some more. Sakamichi looked at the bottle he was offering and without much thinking she took it from him with a cheerful laugh.

"Ok then, I'll do it!" she nodded and slowed down, so it wasn't so dangerous if she started pouring the water over herself.

"Oooh, aren't you brave, Sakamichiii," he snickered.

Sakamichi should have known there was something wrong when he grinned so much about it. The moment she poured the content of the bottle all over her head and upper body, she realised how big of a mistake that was. The sweet smell filled her nose and she could feel it on her lips too, the unmistakable taste of sports energy drink.

"Pffffpfffff!" he started spitting around due to laughter. "You actually did it, Stupidmichiii! Look at yourself, you really are a pig! Gross, SO GROSS!" he continued to make fun of her.

"That's... That's... so nasty, Midousuji-kun! W-Wait, don't ride away!" Sakamichi panicked, trying to ignore the nasty sticky feeling on her skin. She wondered how she would explain this to Toudou. The jersey she was wearing was his after all and now it had sports drink stains all over it.

"It's to teach you not to think gross romantic things about me! Bye, Piggymichiii!" he yelled, switched his gears and rode off, leaving the troubled girl alone.

Sakamichi wanted to spill some in her opinion hardcore curses ("oh shucks! what a naughty boy!"), but saved them because it wasn't like he could hear them now. After a few moments of panicking what she should do about her situation, she remembered the convenience store she'd mentioned earlier. It had restrooms, so she could use them to wash most of the drink from her hair and rinse the jersey at least a bit. If she had to cycle like this all the way to the inn, it would dry on her skin and that's when things would get really uncomfortable.

The convenience store wasn't more than three or four kilometres away, but even such short distance was enough for the drink to dry and create nasty sticky coating on Sakamichi's skin; something that was enthusiastically welcomed by members of insect world, particularly the flying sort.

She ended up running into the restroom followed by a really big wasp and had to lock herself in one of the stalls till it flew off. Luckily the stalls were tiny separate rooms.

When the winged predator finally gave up on giving Sakamichi an affectionate lick, she sneaked out of the stall and started washing her face, hair and torso in the wash basin. Whenever another female entered the bathrooms and gave the half-naked girl a surprised look, Sakamichi started apologising and bowing, her dripping hair making mess all over the floor.

It was tough, but in the end she managed to wash most of the sports drink off. Even from her bra.

She left the bathrooms and went to check on her bike just so she spent some time in the sun, giving her jersey and hair chance to dry up a little before she'd go and get some, preferably not melting, snacks or candy bars. There was no point in buying a sandwich or something else to fill her tummy as evening was approaching. Last night's dinner was basically a feast for kings and she was sure tonight would be no different.

She touched her handlebars. They were sticky too. She figured it'd be a good idea to get some fresh water and was them, but before she could grab her empty bottles to replenish them, someone appeared next to her with sound effects of a ghost, which is to say with no sound effects at all.

"Sakamichi-chan, hello!" the person greeted her in a soft voice.

"UH?" she felt her heart stop for a brief moment before she realised who the person was. "Manami-kun!"

"How are you? You've been cycling for two days now, right? Doesn't your body hurt?" he asked her politely, smiling like an angel.

He was just like she'd remembered him from the last Inter-High. Exceptionally handsome, much like Toudou.

"It does hurt, but in a good way," Sakamichi reciprocated the smile, but then gave him a panicked look. "S-Sorry, I know it sounds weird and doesn't make many sense!" She was no good dealing with good looking people. In fact, she wasn't really good at dealing with any kind of people...

"Don't worry, I know what you mean," he shook his head. "It makes you feel alive, am I right?"

"Y-Yeah, I suppose it's like that!" she admitted. "I'm tired, but I feel quite happy." Happy. In spite of being completely wet due to Midousuji acting like a total butt.

"That's great, Sakamichi-chan!" he beamed, placing his hand on her bike's handlebars. However, his hand retreated as soon as his fingertips touched it. "It's sticky..." What a comment. It's not like Sakamichi didn't know.

"Yeah. I accidentally spilt a sports drink over it," she quickly came up with an excuse.

"Where did you get a sports drink?" he looked at her as if he just spotted her lie.

"I-Imaizumi-kun gave it to me. You see, because it's so exhausting cycling all day, right?" Sakamichi laughed awkwardly.

"I see," Manami nodded. "You're a clumsy girl, aren't you." The gentle laugh his throat produced made Sakamichi's head spin a little.

"Yeah, s-sorry," she laughed too.

"Do you know what the older guys started to call you?" he asked.

"Uh... N-No? Though I... I think I don't want to know it if it's perverted," she sighed. It was somehow connected to the hot springs naked situation, wasn't it...

"Well, I don't know what made them came up with it, but when they are talking about you, they sometimes refer to you as "Princess"," he smiled.

"P-Princess? M-Me?" she blinked. It was surprisingly nice and even if there were hidden meanings attached to it, she could easily forget about them like this.

"I think it's kind of fitting," Manami noted. If Sakamichi was experienced in these things, she'd probably figure out that he was actually flirting with her.

"Eh... Manami-kun, calling me Princess is a bit...," she started, but didn't finish the sentence.

Princess... Princess...

She was forgetting something. Something of high importance. Something special. Yes, it was IT, the Love Hime Anniversary Special. Normal episodes of Love Hime were aired later in the evening weekly, but the special episode was different. When she had learned about it, she made sure to remember really well it was planned to be aired way earlier than its usual time slot. On top of that, not even on the usual day of the week. Sakamichi looked at her cyclocomputer to check what time it was. It was quarter to five.

"H-Hime!" Sakamichi squeaked so high Manami flinched at the noise.

"What is it, Sakamichi-chan?" he asked patiently.

"I... I... I can't talk now, Manami-kun! I'm sorry! Let's talk later or something, ok? I have to... I have to... aaaah," she babbled quickly and made a few disorderly movements around her bike before she put her helmet on, grabbed the bike and without as much as looking at Manami, she rode away with the speed of light. Manami stood speechless and motionlessly on the spot and watched her as she started climbing the next hill on a winding path that started a few metres behind the shop.

She was so fast and it was a slope, Manami's specialty. He loved climbing hills, he loved everything about them and there was Sakamichi, the girl who seemingly climbed the slope as if it was a piece of cake. He couldn't help but chuckle for himself.

While Manami was having these thoughts about the girl and her apparent natural talent, Sakamichi was already quite far from the convenience store. She was climbing a hill alright, but her legs were shaking, her muscles were hurting and her heart was stinging a little because her lungs had hard time keeping up with her need of oxygen.

She was never good in math, but right now her brain was calculating at alarming speed how quickly she could get back to the inn. The Love Hime special was starting in fifteen minutes. Right now, she was roughly ten kilometres away from the inn. On top of that, the terrain was rolling and slopes were quite steep. And, as a little cherry on the cake of her despair, there was this tiny fact she was exhausted and except for the last two days, she was a road bicycle virgin who just started gathering experience.

"_I will never make it in time...,_" she sobbed in her mind. Of course, there was no way she could! Even if she managed to keep her speed above 40 kilometres per hour, the hills would inevitably slow her down and she was scared to go too fast on downhill. And the weather was still scorching and it was somehow difficult to breathe.

There was, however, one positive thing about her situation. The wet jersey felt quite good now! The faster she went, the more it cooled her heated skin. She paid no attention to the fact she could catch a cold. Gritting her fingers around the sticky handlebars, she thought to herself:

"_No... I can't give up! If I try really hard, I can make it!... Hime... Hime!_"

Sakamichi put all her strength into turning those pedals as if her life depended on it. To be honest, it sort of did; at least her life and pride as a hardcore anime fan. There was no chance she'd miss her favourite show, an Anniversary Special episode on top of that! Unsure what she was doing anymore, her actions were led purely by instinct and no matter how difficult the idea of shifting gears according to the terrain seemed before, Sakamichi was changing them steadily and nearly flawlessly now.

"Hime!" she squeaked as if it was some sort of battle cry.

Four minutes after she left surprised Manami standing in front of the convenience store, she reached the top of the hill she was climbing, passed another scenic lookout and disappeared in the forest.

She didn't notice there were some of the older guys taking a break on the lookout.

"The fuck was that?! Sonic fuckin' Hedgehog or what?!" Arakita mumbled while drinking his favourite drink.

"Didn't you see, Yasutomo?" Shinkai smiled.

"I was drinking, ok?! I just noticed something going by in the corner of my eye. I'm not a fly to cover three hundred and sixty degree radius with my eyes, geez," Arakita mumbled.

"It was Onoda," Kinjou replied.

"What? You mean that Onoda-chan?! No way," Arakita shook his head.

"It really was her, Arakita-san," Izumida nodded. "She was giving it her best. Even Andy twitched in excitement when she passed by."

"Holy shit that's creepy," Arakita looked at Izumida's pecs suspiciously.

"She's exceptionally strong," Fukutomi noted. Kinjou smirked.

"I guess that proves which of our teams is stronger," he said.

"What do you mean, Kin-chan?" Arakita looked at him, but it was Tadokoro, who answered Arakita's question.

"Well, even Souhoku's manager can ride a road racer like this. It's obvious which one has upper hand now," the big Souhoku guy grinned.

"That's right, we didn't even have a girl manager!" Shinkai chuckled. Yes, that was definitely a sign of weakness. Every high schooler knew that sport clubs with female managers were the winners no matter what the results in their respective disciplines were.

"Hey, Shinkai, stop talking shit. There's no way Souhoku is better! What the fuck though? Was she really so fast on a climb? I thought she was supposed to be a beginner," Arakita mumbled in disbelief, crushed the empty Bepsi can in his hands and threw it into a trash bin.

"Even as a beginner she can be good on climbs. She has a much lighter body than any of us. If she was racing a sprinter on a flat terrain, she'd obviously lose due to lack of muscle, but on a climb that kind of thing doesn't matter. She can bring herself to the top much easier with her petite frame," Kinjou commented. Arakita gave him an annoyed eye. Kinjou noticed and grinned much like Tadokoro a few moments before: "Either way, it just proves Souhoku is a much stronger team altogether."

"Juichi, what should we do? Why don't we try catching up with the princess?" Shinkai smiled and put on his helmet.

"Yeah, let's see how strong she really is up close," Fukutomi nodded.

Meanwhile, Sakamichi finished descend and after a short ride through a picturesque valley, she got to another foot of a hill. She was exhausted, but her body was moving like a machine that still had a lot of power to go. She didn't look at her cyclocomputer to check her speed nor time, but it somehow felt like she was going faster than ever before.

"Hiiime hime, hime...," she let out in between loud huffs and even though it didn't sound that way, she was using the wannabe singing to help her determination move her still-hurting butt up the hill.

"Suki suki...," she continued the chorus, stood up from her saddle and started dancing above her bike to get some extra boost for her climb. Taking nearly a hundred and eighty degree turn on the road, she got behind a familiar pair of riders.

Her concentration was reaching maximum levels so despite seeing the duo in front of her, at first she couldn't process who they were. It was them who noticed her first.

Naruko looked behind him because he could hear the familiar chirping of the wheels. He thought he'd see the upperclassmen they'd passed a while ago, but seeing the unexpected guest closing up on them surprised him so much he nearly fell of his bike.

"Your pace is falling, Naruko!" Imaizumi, who was drafting for him, scolded him.

"Dude, Hotshot, it's Onoda-chan!" Naruko gasped, his voice clearly full of surprise. Imaizumi looked behind him as well. Naruko was right! Their fragile-looking, clumsy friend was dancing on her bike and catching up with them quickly.

"Onoda-chan! What the heck! What are you doing here, riding like crazy? Do you think you're doing an individual time trial or what?!" Naruko yelled. It wasn't until that moment when she finally realised who was in front of her.

"Imaizumi-kun! Naruko-kun!" she huffed with a smile. Finally, after riding for so long, she was able to catch up with them. Her smile didn't last long though. It soon turned into an expression of utter despair.

"Onoda, what is it?" Imaizumi asked her.

"H-Hime!" she barked.

"What?" Naruko stared.

"Imaizumi-kun, Hime! I forgot... It's starting at five and I... I don't think I can make it on time!" she explained. Naruko looked really confused. Imaizumi not so much.

"You're right," he frowned. He looked like he was battling some sort of dilemma inside his head. He looked at his cyclocomputer and sighed. "We can still make it on time! Hurry, shift your gear and get right behind me, ok?" Sakamichi smiled brightly and nodded with excitement. "Naruko, are you coming with us?" Imaizumi looked at his redhead friend.

"What? What's happening?" Naruko panicked, feeling like he was missing something.

"I'm taking Onoda back to the inn in the next seven minutes. You could help me pulling her if you feel like it," Imaizumi invited him seemingly reluctantly.

"Oh god, it better not be because of the Hime anime!" Naruko complained.

"S-Sorry Naruko-kun. It's because of the Hime anime!" Onoda apologised.

"Well it can't be helped anyway!" he grinned at her and looked behind them again. "Just so you know, Hotshot, we got some company," he informed the tall dark haired boy about the group of upperclassmen climbing the hill after them.

"Well, let's see if we can shake them off, shall we?" Imaizumi smirked. Onoda flinched. What did he mean?

"I like your guts, Hotshot!" Naruko laughed. "Onoda-chan! Don't worry! Get behind us as close as you can. We will pull you up the hill! Don't be scared that our wheels are too close, you'll be alright!"

"U-Uh... Yes!" she nodded and put on her determined face, or at least something very much close to it.

"Oh, they are drafting for her!" Shinkai said amusedly when he saw what was going on in front of him.

"Shall we join the bandwagon?" Kinjou asked Fukutomi.

"Yeah," the blonde spiky-head agreed. "Arakita!"

"Hey hey!" Arakita left their small pack and rode to the front. Others lined behind him like little ducklings behind their mother duck. "If there's something I'm good at, it's chasing after younger girls' booties," he grinned.

"Sure," Kinjou held back laughter.

"Kin-chan, shut up! I will bite YOUR booty later!"

Sakamichi felt a little uncomfortable when the upperclassmen with the wild Arakita in the front caught up with her. Especially since Arakita started asking her weird questions about her bum, if it still hurts and such, till Fukutomi scolded him for being impolite, but the next moment she found themselves in the middle of the long train climbing the hill in a really high speed – speed she'd hardly reach if she was all alone – and when the guys started taking turns in the front, pulling the train, she couldn't help but smile brightly.

It was so much fun! At this speed the hot air didn't seem hot at all and even though she was sweating like a piggy, it hardly mattered because, well, all of them were sweating like crazy. Her legs felt like her bones were about to shatter and her muscles about to tear into shreds, yet she didn't mind those things either. She even forgot why she was going fast like this in the first place.

Oh, of course! For the Love Hime. However, when Shinkai passed her on his way to the front of the pack so he could draft for others now and commented how impressed he was she could keep up, she felt like a magical girl herself.

It wasn't more than a few minutes riding like that when they got to the inn, and honestly, it felt even shorter than that. Sakamichi felt almost sad when she got off her bike, and her knees bent right away. If she didn't lean against her bike, she'd surely fall on her four.

"Thank you so much!" she yelled and bowed really deeply just so they couldn't see that her eyes were starting to sparkle with tears of happiness. "N-Naruko-kun, please take care of my bike!" she lead the bike to him and he nodded with a small smile, watching her disappear in the inn.

She made it with a minute to spare!

"Ok, now can you please explain what was this shit about?! Why were you pedalling like crazy just to get back to the inn?!" Arakita barked and poured his bottle of fresh water all over himself. Others were doing the same, drinking and resting while leaning against their handlebars.

Imaizumi gulped and looked at the inn, questioning his priorities and life choices and his future and the potential ruin of his dignity in front of all the upperclassmen due to bad decisions.

"Naruko... Please, my bike too," he mumbled, shoved his blue Scott at his red-haired friend and without daring to look back at the upperclassmen because of his soft pink blush, he followed Onoda into the inn.

"As I thought," Naruko sighed.

"What? So what was that?! Are they dating?! Did she like... get super horny and all we did was to get the two to bed as soon as we could?!" Arakita asked.

"Arakita, please...," Kinjou sighed.

"What? Kin-chan?! If you ask me, they should do it in a bush or something!" Arakita complained.

"Don't compare others to yourself. People usually don't enjoy doing it in bushes, Yasutomo," Shinkai smirked, took a bite of an energy bar, hopped on his bike again and rode off.

"You bastard! Wait, I'll make you pay!" Arakita yelled and chased after him.

"It's about anime. I think some special episode is starting at five," Naruko explained and sounded way too serious.

"You seem disappointed, Naruko! Feeling bad about being left out?" Tadokoro laughed.

"Shut up, old timer! As if I got disappointed about something like that!" the boy hissed.

"Well, let's go, we still have plenty of time left," said Kinjou and got on his bike.

"Yeah," Fukutomi nodded and everyone excluding Naruko left the inn.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary: Manami starts with his frontal attack. Midousuji isn't very pleased by this and Sakamichi is frustrated by the nasty treatment Midousuji gives her. The rest of this chapter is MidoSaka almost-fluff.**

**Note: Sorry it took so long again! I'm trying to be regular with updates, but I know the intervals between updates are getting larger. Bear with me, please! (At least this chapter is quite long!) I hope you will enjoy this lenghty and mostly pointless chapter about MidoSaka, hehe. Reviews are always welcome! **

**Oh, and my HUGE thanks go to a tumblr user called "luffles", thanks for the beta, dear! ^^**

Thanks to Imaizumi and others, Sakamichi was able to make it in time for the Love Hime Anniversary Special, and even though she spent the time watching it still sitting in her jersey, sweaty and smelly and not particularly comfortable, she didn't really mind because everything was worth it. When Imaizumi joined her in front of the tv as well, it made her shine like a Christmas tree, and when they both started humming the Love Hime opening, her happiness was complete for the evening.

As soon as the episode ended, she decided to take a little dip in the hot springs. Now that she was off her bike, her body was letting her know what it was thinking about the whole idea of cycling non-stop for a few days without a proper training or experience. The hot water was just what she needed, so after checking four or five times that she was entering the right part of the baths, she finally got in and started to wash the day's worth of sweat and dirt of her naked skin.

The sensation of the hot liquid enveloping her as soon as she overcame the terrible struggle to place her bruised buttocks d the bottom of the pool was truly divine. This time she didn't have to worry about any unexpected visitors, because she knew really well she was in the right part of the baths. However, thinking about unexpected visitors and mistaking of male and female baths... she kind of wanted to get up and make sure once more. Well, she wanted, but her body was strictly against the idea, so she just kept sitting in the hot water, starring at the starry sky above her and humming a new song she had heard in today's special episode of Love Hime.

All of a sudden, she heard a splash of water coming from over the fence, from the male part.

"Good evening, who is there?" she asked with a smile. She didn't mind having a little chat with someone else, but no one answered and she had to let it be, thinking it was just her imagination.

"The first step is always dreaming...," she started singing again, but her voice died as soon as she saw someone coming out of the building. Someone who's figure didn't look much female-like.

"Mana... Mana... aaa... Manami-kun?!" she shrieked and looked around her in search for her bathing towel. It was pretty out of her reach again.

"Good evening, Sakamichi-chan," he smiled brightly as if this was exactly the place where he was supposed to be. He steadily approached the pool and before he submerged his body in, he removed the white cloth tied around his hips, placing it casually on a boulder-like decoration at the edge of the hot spring.

"Ma... Mana... Manaaa...," Sakamichi had trouble forming words. She felt like she'd just changed into a pokemon able to say only one word. "Did... Did I... make a mistake again?" she somehow managed to gasp eventually. Manami watched her with an entertained smile.

"Don't worry, you're in the right part tonight," he tried to calm her down, but it wasn't very effective.

"Y-You must leave, Manami-kun! W-What if another lady comes?" Sakamichi panicked.

"Don't worry, you know there aren't many female visitors around, right?" the boy said casually. Sakamichi stared at him in disbelief. Oh my, he was so handsome with his hair all wet and dripping water over his shoulders. Her eyes were roaming somewhere around his collar bones when he spoke again, distracting her: "Oh look, you got a tan!"

"Huh?" Sakamichi looked at her arms. Her usually pale skin stayed only in the places of her body that were covered with the jersey. It seemed her arms and legs got a few loving pecks from the sun rays. "Y-You're right," she stuttered.

"It looks pretty sexy," he smiled widely.

"W-What?" Sakamichi flinched. "B-But you have it too!" she pointed out. His arms and legs had the very same kind of tan as she had.

"Yes, I do," Manami nodded.

"A-A-Anyway... Please, you really should go, this is female part! What are... you doing here?" Sakamichi asked and quickly turned away, because it looked like Manami was about to stand up, but, all he did was move even closer to her. In fact, he was so close to Sakamichi now that if she reached out, she could comfortably touch his body without having to stretch her arm too much.

"M-Manami-kun!" Sakamichi panicked.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" Manami panicked a little as well and quickly continued: "I was just... a bit envious of my upperclassmen and your friends, you know? They got to find you the last night and... I got a bit curious, so I thought I could try seeing you tonight."

Sakamichi felt like her eyes were about to pop out of her eye sockets and drop right into the hot water which, by the way, seemed to get hotter every second she spent in his presence.

"Y-You...," she gasped.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sound creepy, but you can't blame me! Of course I'd get envious of my upperclassmen when they found you naked in the male part," he smiled apologetically.

Yeah, she understood where he was coming from, but yesterday's and today's situations were so different. Yesterday was awkward, but quite comical too, because there was so many of them. However, today she was completely alone and now it changed with his arrival, in other words with arrival of the really good looking boy. It didn't really help she used to somehow have a crush on him in the past, that wasn't even that distant yet. Haven't met him since the last summer, it wasn't a big thing, but seeing him up close and, oh yes, naked, with those indeed-pretty-sexy tan lines... Surely it would be impossible to stay completely oblivious about that all.

Sakamichi was so perplexed she even forgot to blush. She was searching for some clever comeback, but the only thing that came to her mind was:

"I... thought you had a girlfriend."

She wondered if it was a hit or miss, especially since she didn't know what she should even go for. It's not like she wanted to seduce him. It's not like she even knew how to seduce boys in the first place.

No, it was definitely a miss. Manami gave her somehow disappointed look.

"Y-You know, the really pretty girl with long hair and glasses," Sakamichi quickly added.

"Yeah, Miyahara...," Manami sighed. "We were dating, but as soon as we went to different universities, we grew apart and the last time I visited my parent's house, I met her with another guy. We didn't even talk about break up, it just happened naturally," he explained.

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that, Manami-kun," Sakamichi said quietly and somehow wanted to give him a little sign of her support, like patting his shoulder or something similar.

"It's ok. It wasn't even such a big deal when I saw her with the other guy. We were just like 'Hi, how are you, see ya', and that was it. No hard feelings," he waved his hand.

"Still, she could at least tell you, maybe," Sakamichi said as if it was her own fault they broke up.

"You're too nice, Sakamichi-chan. Hey, it's no big deal, so don't worry about it, ok?" Manami smiled.

"I'll try, but...," Sakamichi whined.

"No buts! By the way, speaking about a really pretty girl with long hair and glasses...," the boy started and looked at Sakamichi's barely shoulder-length haircut. "Where did your pretty long hair go? If I remember correctly, your hair was a bit wavy and quite long, right?"

"Y-Yeah... I cut them off shortly after the Inter-High," Sakamichi nodded and hoped she won't have to explain what exactly happened.

"Why?" asked Manami. Of course he had to ask. Sakamichi quickly made something up.

"You know, I got a bit tired of them and... I wanted a change and... you know... so I cut them short, I kinda looked like a boy for a while... but it was ok," she babbled.

"Really? Too bad... But please, grow them back, alright? Long hair really suited you," he encouraged her.

"A-Ah... Alright," she nodded and blushed this time.

She felt a bit guilty for not telling him the truth. The truth was, after the last Inter-high, there was an event in Akihabara for one of her favourite anime and she decided to do a cosplay of one boy from the series because Naruko commented how she would "look like that stressed and yelling kid from the weird apocalypse robot show if she was a boy" and after staring a few minutes at her image in a mirror, she realised he was right. So, she ordered a short wig, the costume (a rather closely fitting latex suit) and worked on completing her look till she was a hundred percent happy with the results. However, her mom accidentally washed the wig, ruining it completely and having no time to get another one, Sakamichi got extremely desperate and just cut her hair off in cosplaying frenzy. Yeah, Imaizumi and Naruko were a bit shocked the next day in school, but her cosplay was perfect that day and that was all that mattered.

"Sakamichi-chan," he said her name, stopping her reminiscing about the super cool day in Akihabara when lots of people took a picture of her cosplay and complimented her spot on look.

"Y-Yes?" she flinched, but it was already too late. She felt his fingertips trace the back of her nape gently. "Ma... Mana..." Her language skills went haywire again.

"You have some shampoo left there," Manami commented, his face looking somehow dreamy. "Don't you know you shouldn't enter hot springs with soap left on your skin, Sakamichi-chan?" he asked, wiping the bubbly leftovers with his fingers.

"I... I guess I missed that spot," Sakamichi admitted slowly and caught herself closing her eyes at the pleasant strokes of his hand. She didn't even open them when Manami's hand stopped and instead of touching her with his fingers only, he placed his whole palm on her nape and without any kind of warning started pulling her closer.

Sakamichi realised what was going on surprisingly quickly. She opened her eyes only to see his face even dreamier than before, his eyelids half closed and his soft-looking lips slightly opened. He was going to kiss her! Sakamichi closed her eyes again.

She was going to let him, wasn't she...

"MAAANAAAMIII," a really loud shriek disturbed the two teenagers.

"Eh!" Sakamichi let out a really scared sound and retreated back to her original place, pulling her legs to her body to hide as much as she could from her nakedness.

As if Manami wasn't enough...

"Oh, hello there, Midousuji-kun. What are you doing here?" Manami asked casually.

"I was about to ask you the very same thing, Maanaamii," Midousuji barked and walked towards them. Sakamichi dared to peek at him. He didn't even bother tying the washing cloth around his hips. He just held it lazily in front of his crotch and if Sakamichi paid proper attention, she could easily see what was behind it. Except there was absolutely no chance she would pay proper attention to something like that. Some things are best left unknown to her poor, feeble mind.

She could however notice that he was already quite wet and somehow... steamy.

"Weren't you taking bath the next door?" Manami asked. "Why would you bother coming here in the middle of your bath, I wonder?"

"_Oh! So the splash I heard earlier... It was Midousuji-kun!_" Sakamichi thought to herself.

"It's none of your business. Besides, Manamiii, this is a female part of the baths," Midousuji replied.

"I accidentally entered the wrong door and since Sakamichi-chan was here already, I thought why not stay and chat for a while...," Manami shrugged, his angelic face looking as innocent as ever.

Sakamichi shivered in the water when Midousuji passed behind her back and entered the pool just next to her, hanging his bathing cloth lazily over his shoulder.

"_Ugh... He's naked and he's so close_," Sakamichi cried in her mind. If Manami was within her stretched arm's reach, Midousuji sat less than a foot away. He sat close enough for her to somehow feel his presence.

What kind of surreal situation that was?! She, fairly innocent girl, sitting in the middle of two naked guys; one of them basically a prince Charming look-wise and the other being the evil beast the prince Charming was supposed to defeat, but at the same time, the one she'd discovered her warm feelings to.

"But why did YOU come here, Midousuji-kun?" Manami insisted on the question. Sakamichi couldn't get over the feeling they were somehow fighting over her, although it was quite ridiculous. She was nothing special to be fought over.

"I heard your voice and I thought I might come and take a look what you're up to. Turns out I was right! Grooooss, you were trying to kiss the poor girl! Are you insane? Isn't it sexual harassment?" Midousuji attacked Manami. Verbally only, but still quite fiercely.

"Well, Sakamichi didn't seem to mind, am I right?" Manami smiled at the confused girl.

"I... ugh... I...," Sakamichi tried to react but nothing meaningful came out of her mouth.

"That's gross bullshit, Maanaamiii. Just to let you know, we are sleeping together, right, Saaakaaamiiichiii," Midousuji roared, grabbed Sakamichi around her small waist and pressed her against the right side of his body.

"A... Ah...," Sakamichi moaned, no longer aware what was happening. Her mind went totally blank.

"Is that true, Sakamichi-chan?" Manami asked. "You're sleeping together?"

He sounded surprised... in a bad way.

"Well... t-technically... w-we...," she started, trying to explain what exactly she meant while ignoring Midousuji's long fingers pressed against her soft right side.

"Right, we do! What's with the gross 'technically' stuff, Sakamichiii? Be honest to the poor boy! So, Manami, I'd be happy if you stopped trying to smooch Sakamichi's gross face!" Midousuji hissed.

"I see," Manami nodded and then shrugged.

"Unless it was you, gross Piggymichi, who tried seducing Manami? You naughty girl, I can't let my eyes off you for a second!" Midousuji pouted and pushed Sakamichi away, back to her place between them both.

"M-Midousuji-kun," Sakamichi whined. She had a million problems with this situation. Surprisingly, being naked wasn't the main of them.

"Don't be nasty, Midousuji-kun. This is not how you should treat a girl," Manami commented and gently touched Sakamichi's shoulder.

"Mind your own business, Manami," Midousuji mumbled.

"Sakamichi-chan, I hope we'll get to talk later again, ok? Stay safe," he winked at her, gave her a small kiss on her cheek and got out of the pool, leaving Sakamichi alone with the rude, lanky guy.

Sakamichi stared at Manami's nicely shaped buttocks as he was leaving the female part of the hot springs. Of course, he had them covered with the white washing cloth, but the drenched fabric was sticking to his skin and didn't really do much to hide his butt crack.

Funnily enough, it hardly mattered to Sakamichi now. She kept asking herself what he meant when he told her to stay safe.

"Grooooss," Midousuji distracted her from thinking about the meaning of Manami's words while staring at his disappearing bum.

"W-What is...?" Sakamichi blurted out.

"For starters, the way you're staring at his ass. So disgusting, Pervymichiii," he told her.

"I... I wasn't staring at his ass!" she said quickly. Well, she sort of was, but it was only a coincidence.

"Yeah you were, you nasty little liar!" he frowned.

"W-Why are you here, anyway?! Is it b-because Manami-kun was trying to kiss me?" Sakamichi frowned as well. She was quite stressed and somehow annoyed too. The bath was meant to be relaxing, not lethal, and that's exactly what it felt like now. She was about to get a heart attack.

"I'm not replying your stupid questions," he pouted.

"W-Well, M-Manami-kun is gone now, so you can l-leave as well," she said angrily.

She didn't even know what she was so angry about. Maybe the fact that he barged in as Manami was about to kiss her, or maybe the way he was all possessive, claiming they slept together, and then pushing her away like that... who knows. Whatever it was, she felt really upset.

"I don't want to," Midousuji stick his tongue at her. Sakamichi turned her back on him. It was safer that way in case her eyes decided to roam his body.

"Why did you... tell him... we sleep together?" she asked quietly.

"What are you talking about, Sakamichiii? I just said the truth, didn't I?" Midousuji sighed.

"But we don't sleep together in that way!" she raised her voice.

"Of course we don't. If he ends up thinking we do, it will just prove how stupid he is," the boy grinned.

"Why?"

"Well, who would sleep with someone like you?"

Sakamichi flinched. What was that supposed to mean? Was she really that ugly and disgusting to this guy? Her chest did the thing when it was nearly impossible to breathe without breaking her ribs.

"W-Why don't you find another place to sleep, then," she mumbled, trying to hide she was about to cry. She got up, somehow managed to get out of the pool gracefully despite her hurting body, wrapped herself in her towel and left the hot springs.

Midousuji was left all alone in the pool.

"Gross," he whispered to himself and rubbed his eyes a little, as if he was trying to wipe the image of naked Sakamichi off his memory.

He knew she was upset and yes, she sort of sounded like she was about to cry. Normally he'd be happy about causing her emotional distress, but now... He couldn't understand why he acted so gross. Entering the female part of the baths as soon as he realised Sakamichi wasn't alone in there, acting like they were a couple in front of Manami and what the hell was the faint feeling of guilt about making Sakamichi mad like that?

He was getting completely insane and it was the girl's fault!

Later that evening, Midousuji was getting ready for bed. He was all alone in the tiny room he was normally sharing with Sakamichi. She didn't come back yet, but he didn't feel too bothered by that. He saw her having fun with others, doing the typical hot springs activities like stuffing your belly like a pig and playing various silly games, one of them being the infamous table tennis. He angrily imagined how she would inevitably wake him once she comes back, and tried to plan some clever and nasty come backs to that situation.

He laid motionlessly on his futon for a while. Eventually, he got up and opened the wardrobe, curiously looking at Sakamichi's stuff. Nothing really piqued his interest, so he closed the wardrobe again and sat on the spot for a few minutes like a loser, staring blankly into who knows where. It was quite normal for him, but others would surely see him as some sort of a lunatic.

After getting bored of being productive by doing absolutely nothing, he got up and prepared Sakamichi's futon for when she comes back, only to put it away as soon as he was done.

"GROSS!" he yelled, angrily punching his pillow.

No, this wasn't funny anymore. What the hell was happening to him? His brain was littered with thoughts of the girl.

"Ohoho," he heard a cheerful voice right behind the sliding door a few seconds before they opened. "Ho... HOHOHO!"

Sakamichi was standing there with the brightest and the most dumb smile he'd ever seen on her face or any face altogether.

"What?" he barked and watched her as she entered the room. Her walk was anything but straight. She didn't make it far either and tripped over her own foot after a few tiny steps.

"Mid... Midou... su... nooo... Akira-kuuun," she moaned his first name and crowned it with a small hiccup. Midousuji flinched and stared in disbelief as she was worming her way towards him over tatami.

Her hair was a mess, her glasses were sitting on her nose somehow awry yet miraculously sitting there without falling, and the way she wore her yukata was quite off as well. On top of that all, she smelled like alcohol.

"You stink, Sakamichiii! Go away!" he yelled as soon as she crawled over his futon.

"I will sleep with youuuu... because we're sleeping... together, Akira-kun," she laughed and hiccuped again.

"Did you hear me? Go away! You're drunk! Drunk people are gross, PIG!" he pushed her away and covered himself with his blanket.

"I'm not... drunk," she shook her head. "...Kiss me, Akira-kun!" she added and puckered her lips while pulling the blanket away from him.

"I don't want to! I would never kiss you! It's gross, you hear me?! Disgusting!" he shrieked and pushed her away again.

"But you... have already kissed me... before... so you're a nasty little liar, Aaakiiiraaaaa," she giggled, saying his name the same way he often said her own, prolonging all the vowels.

"Sakamichiii, I have kissed you before, yes, BUT you weren't stinky and drunk like a PIG!" he objected.

"I'm not drunk. I just had... a few glasses of good stuff with... Arakita-nyan," she purred and crawled over his body completely, taking his blanket's place as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The boy looked at her with utter horror in his eyes.

Did she just call that Arakita guy "Arakita-nyan"?

Drunken Sakamichi was so scary...

"So it's that guy's fault?" he sighed.

"He... said I was looking down and he gave me the good stuff and now I feel quite good," she explained and focused her eyes on him, puckering her lips again. "Now... kiss me," she moaned in a way that was fifty percent comical and fifty percent sensual.

"I told you I'm not kissing you! Get off me! Go kiss Manami!" Midousuji yelled. If Onoda wasn't too drunk to process stuff in her head, she'd realise he was blushing a little.

"B-But you were against it before...," she murmured. "...Me kissing Manami..."

"I don't care! Kiss whoever you want, you gross girl! Go and crawl over Manami, ok? JUST LEAVE, gross, GROSS!" Midousuji struggled, trying to get her off him not too forcefully. He would just kick her away, but something was stopping him from doing so. After all, she was a lot smaller than he was.

"I'd rather... kiss you," she sniffed, her mood changing quite drastically, from cheerful and loud into somewhat serene and melancholic. "P-Please?" she whispered, looking at him with glassy eyes. He looked into the big, innocent orbs of hers and felt his cheeks getting hotter.

Now that she wasn't moving around so much, he had more time to perceive her whole being. She was straddling his hips, her hands resting on his chest, clutching the fabric of his tank top unknowingly. Yes, she reeked of alcohol, but her dreamy, lost expression on her blushing face was making up for it. She looked rather... cute and pretty.

What a gross boy he was, thinking something like that about this damn girl!

"Sakamichiii, go to bed...," he sighed, not yelling at her anymore, and she smiled gratefully.

"You are... s-sometimes... but only sometimes... soooo nice...," she droned a few disorganised words sweetly. Somehow she made sense anyway. "But you are... sort of ugly... but cute!" she chirped in addition.

"Sakamichiii, I'm too tired to hear your gross judgements of me!" he hissed. She said he was ugly? Wow, so rude.

"I-If you were nicer to me, I'd... heheh... heh...," she laughed in the middle of her sentence.

Midousuji wondered what it was she would do if he was nicer, but sadly Sakamichi didn't elaborate on her thought. Maybe it was better that way...

"I'm sleepy," she mumbled and closed her eyes. She let her forehead fall on his chest and the impact was so strong it could be easily called head-butting. Again. He asked himself what it was with her and her weird hobby of head-butting his chest. What a weird habit the girl had...

"I-If you are sleepy, you should prepare your own futon and sleep there," he commented with trembling voice and innocence of a little child.

"N-Nooo," Sakamichi howled. "I want to stay here," she protested.

"Here? You mean... on me?" he asked nervously.

"Heh... Heh heh... Akira-kun, you're funny," she started giggling again, but since she did that right into his tank top, it sounded more like weeping.

"Stop saying stupid things, Sakamichiii," he warned her, but there were no traces of his usual hostility in his voice.

"This feels... so good," Sakamichi murmured, completely ignoring his words, and wrapped her arms around his skinny chest.

"Stop it, Sakamichi... it's... gross," he said slowly, his confidence and all-mighty behaviour disappearing into the thin air. There was no point in telling her something like that, though. The drunk girl was paying absolutely no attention to his words. Instead, she was drowning herself in some pleasant dimension which was miles away from his reach, yet at the same time he was the most important part of it.

"It's making me so, so happy... hugging you like this..," Sakamichi tried expressing what she was feeling, but the word "happy" was a bit too abstract to the boy.

"Happy?" he asked her.

"Mhhhm," she nodded but it somehow looked like she was wiping her nose into his tank top. "It's like... when mom used to hug me. But better," she continued.

Midousuji's heart skipped a beat and then restarted twice as fast. So that's how it was... To Sakamichi, it felt like that. She felt like he hadn't felt for ages. A terrible dilemma materialized in front of him. Should he let the girl enveloped with the fuzzy warmth she was enjoying so much, or should he prevent her from feeling it just because he was admittedly kind of envious of her experience?

"I... I will go to my mattress," Sakamichi ensured him, "but let me stay like this a little longer."

Her voice was so pleading and he lacked the mental strength to refuse her request. His hands were shivering like it was winter outside when he slowly raised them from their position beside his body and embraced her.

"Hohoho," the girl acknowledged them with a more or less annoying chuckle, let go of him, reached for the blanket she pulled away from him earlier, and covered her back with it. Midousuji raised his head from the pillow and gave her a questioning look. "Let's sleep together, Akiraaaa," she grinned and snuggled to his body as if she was a tiny child and he was her favourite teddy bear.

"Sakamichiii...," he said in complaining tone.

"Oooh, Akira-kun, your heart is racing... like crazy," she commented.

"Be quiet, Sakamichi!" he barked, losing himself completely.

"Let's sleep together," she purred and ticked his right side.

"SAKAMICHIII!" he flinched and pushed her away from his chest, but the girl just laughed it off and instead of climbing his body again, she cuddled to his left side, resting her head on his bony shoulder. Her determination to "sleep together" seemed to be absolutely indestructible.

Was... Was she really planning to sleep like this? No way he could do that! His chest hurt pretty badly because his heart was beating like mad. This way he will get a heart attack before the morning comes.

It wasn't like he thought it was disgusting, although "gross" was surely the word he'd use to describe it. He didn't even hate her, on the contrary – he could admit that much now. She was the only one who bothered to get closer to him even though he kept chasing her away. He thought of her as his friend now, a rather good one too. It was just him being unable to act like one because he'd never really had any friends so the whole concept of friendship was quite difficult to grasp for him.

However, it felt like she wasn't stopping there. As if friendship wasn't her goal at all. She kept creeping her way deeper and deeper into his head. He realised that his anxiety and discomfort wasn't caused by disliking Sakamichi and hating the fact she was so close to him right now. Did he like her? No, but he wasn't totally cold towards her either and that's what was making him so anxious.

He somehow decided he wanted her for himself. Not because he was fond of her. It was because she was so nice to him all the time and he couldn't bear the thought she would be nice like that to anyone else, even though she clearly was. He needed to possess her. To own her. No, it wasn't love, and yet...

He was in trouble.

"What if... I fall asleep?" she murmured with a really happy expression on her face. "I.. could fall asleep like this."

"Just stop talking! Why do you have to talk so much?! Gross! Nice girls should be quiet! That's why you aren't a nice girl!" he let out an avalanche of frustration.

"R-Right now you're pretty loud yourself," she chuckled. Her drunk boldness pissed him off. It wasn't like her to talk back. He didn't expect her to do that. It was an unexpected type of grossness. He wanted to scold her for that, but he was stopped rather abruptly when she threw her left leg over his, turning their legs into messy plait of limbs.

Midousuji flinched. She was getting a bit too intimate!

"Are you ok, Akiraaa?" she buzzed into his ear.

"Just shut up and sleep, Stinkymichiii!" he snapped back, took away her glasses and carefully put them on the tatami behind his pillow. Then, he placed his left arm around her shoulders and rested the palm of his hand on her head, letting his fingers slip into her unkempt hair.

This little action was as if they signed a contract about sleeping together... in the most innocent way of course. It didn't take long before Sakamichi fell asleep and left the shocked and petrified boy only in the company of her quiet, somewhat cute snores.

A few hours later, in the middle of the night, Sakamichi woke up, at first confused about her position on the futon. Blinking blindly into the darkness, she realised she was sleeping on something bony and not really comfortable. Her neck hurt which meant she spent a lot of time stuck in a single position.

The scent tickling her nose was quite familiar yet still unknown at the same time. It kind of smelled like sweat, but despite that she found the savour quite agreeable. If it was sweat, it certainly wasn't hers. She was sweating and her yukata was sticking to her skin, yes, but this wasn't how her sweat smelled like.

As various parts of her body reported their whereabouts one after another to her brain and she realised large patches of skin on her legs touched something of a very similar soft texture, she finally got her answer.

It was Midousuji whom she was partly lying on!

She quickly got up. Her head was spinning and she felt uncomfortable pressure in her temples. She squint her eyes a little, trying to recognise the boy's silhouette in the dark.

Wait, why was she sleeping cuddled up to him like this?

It was slowly coming to her. She was very upset after all that had happened earlier in the hot springs. The almost-kiss from Manami, the unexpected arrival of Midousuji, some nasty things he said to her... It was a bit too much to handle and it showed on her face, so when Arakita offered her something to raise her spirits, she agreed even though she was still underage. Well, others were drinking too, even Naruko and Imaizumi, so she didn't really feel obliged to pass on the opportunity to taste the forbidden fruit.

It worked wonders. It was similar to submerging her body into a hot bath, but the warmth spread from inside of her body outwards, not the other way around. On top of that, her mood improved by at least eighty percent. She spent rest of the evening goofing around with the older boys and acting generally quite silly.

It was a bit embarrassing when she thought back about it, but it was fun and she enjoyed it while it lasted, so why feeling bad about it.

Sakamichi vaguely remembered that after a futile attempt at falling asleep on a ping pong table – Makishima found her – she somehow made it back to her own room and found her temporary roommate still awake.

Sakamichi couldn't explain the actions of her tipsy self, but she remembered how she crawled all over the boy, called her by his first name and snuggled him like a kitten. In spite of that all, she somehow managed to survive and even fall asleep in the snuggling position, hugging the boy as if he was one of that huge hugging pillows with anime characters printed on them.

All that was left of her tipsy state of hers was the nasty headache and dizziness. As if it weren't enough, she felt so bad about her actions! Making a mess with boys was one thing, but cuddling to a guy whom she had unrequited feelings for was really embarrassing.

She sat motionlessly for a whole minute or two, wondering what she should do now. Her futon was put away and she didn't want to wake him up by spreading it across the floor, but sleeping on the bare tatami didn't seem like an option that would provide her with the most comfort. Still, she certainly couldn't go back to sleep while cuddling him, could she?!

She got so lost in thinking what she should do that she completely missed a slight movement below her.

"What are you doing, sitting there like a creep, Sakamichiii?" she heard a quiet, exhausted mumble.

"M-Midousuji-kun!" she squeaked.

"So you aren't sleepwalking. Did you sober up? Or you wanna puke? Gross," he continued, stretching his arms. They sort of... cracked.

"I-I'm sorry," she babbled.

"For waking me up? Gross! I didn't sleep anyway. How could I when you're sleeping on me like that," he pouted, putting on a very annoyed face.

"N-No... Actually... I meant for falling asleep on your shoulder," Sakamichi shook her head.

"Yeah, it was pretty gross and annoying," he mumbled. "But it's not like I can't survive it, you know. I've had worse things than something like that happening to me in the past."

He quickly looked away because he started to get a weird feeling in his stomach. A feeling that was completely unfamiliar to him. Maybe he could compare it to the nervousness before the start of an important race, but it felt like centuries since he'd felt something like that.

"A-Anyway, now that you're up, I will prepare my futon and sleep on it," she informed him and started slowly getting up.

"No, Piggymichi! I don't want you to walk and move around! It's annoying," he barked and stopped her by poking her bum with his knee.

"B-But I want us to sleep comfortably," she objected.

"No way! You got us into this nasty situation. I haven't slept till now! I'm not letting you just crawl to your futon and doze off. If I can't sleep comfortably, you won't either, so get your ass down again and lay where you were before," he whispered but so aggressively that he'd surely yell if they were talking aloud.

Sakamichi's lips trembled as if she was about to smile but tried to hold it at all costs. What kind of logic is that? If she slept on her own mattress, they both would get more comfortable.

"B-But I kind of... liked it, you know," she noted.

"Gross! Quiet, Stinkymichi, shut up! Don't say anything, your breath stinks like booze, you piggy!" he freaked out.

"...I liked it, that's why I fell asleep in the first place," she continued, ignoring his scolding. She admitted her confidence was still boosted by alcohol, even if only a little. She had no clue what else made her tell that so openly to the boy.

"I told you to be quiet, you gross girl! Whatever, just do what you want and let me sleep! Night!" he hissed, turned to his right side, showing the girl his back and pretended to fall asleep or even better, to be unconscious.

Sakamichi sat there for a few more seconds before taking a really deep breath and slowly laying her body next to him. His back felt like an incredibly tall wall, separating their two universes within this small room. She felt him shiver under the blanket, even though their bodies weren't touching. Was he so frustrated by this experience? Something was urging her to stretch her hand and soothe him like mother would soothe her child that just woke up from a nightmare, but she couldn't think of anything that would make things better – everything seemed like the wrong choice.

Thinking about it too much while trying to get the right sleeping position next to Midousuji, she started feeling quite nauseous. She turned to her back and stared at the ceiling. A little whimper escaped her lips.

"Sakamichiii, could you stop moving around and moaning? I'm trying to sleep here, gross," Midousuji growled at her. He sure sounded annoyed.

"S-Sorry, it's just...," she took a deep breath again.

"What?" he whiffed and turned around so he lied on his other side, facing Sakamichi. Normally she'd be embarrassed and blushing, but this wasn't the right time for that. He looked at her and propped his head with his left hand. "Oooh, Sakamichiii, could it be that you feel sick?" he asked as if he intended to laugh at her the very next moment.

"Y-Yes... My tummy feels a bit...," she nodded, but didn't finish her sentence. Just in case. It seemed like more than just words could come out if she finished it.

"What a wimp you are, can't even handle a bit of alcohol. Piggymichi, why are you so wimpy?" he mumbled.

Did he really expect her to react about something like that? No way, she wasn't going to risk it and replied to his bitchy question with a little moan, proving his point about her wimpy nature in the process.

"Gross. If it's really that bad, bend your knees," he instructed her. Sakamichi looked at him, unsure if she wasn't hallucinating. He actually gave her a good advice. Really? Before she did as he said, he grabbed his pillow and stuck it under her head. "There, Sakamichiii. Don't move your head and take deep, slow breaths. It should make you feel better eventually," he continued in a less aggressive voice, supporting Sakamichi's idea that she was, in fact, dreaming.

She shuddered when his hand accidently brushed against her forehead. She was planning to risk it anyway and express her gratitude, but he quickly added:

"And you better get well soon, Grossmichi! And if you vomit on me, I'll end you."

Sakamichi's head twitched. The comment about ending her was a bit brutal.

"What did I say about now moving your head?! Keep still! Do I have to repeat everything a million times, small fry?! Gross!" Midousuji spitted some more of his venom and smacked the girl's forehead with his long fingers, leaving them there as if he intended to keep her head movements in check. Sakamichi let out the tiniest, hardly noticeable sound fromher lips, but then calmed down and closed her eyes, following his advices and taking slow and deep breaths.

"Where did you...," she wanted to ask him where did he learnt these tips after a minute or so of keeping quiet, but he didn't let her finish her sentence.

"Nowhere. It's called common sense, small fry," he bounced her question away angrily.

"S-Sorry," Sakamichi squeaked. She shouldn't have asked! Her muscles tensed to the sound of Midousuji's irritated tone. It surely didn't do her belly much good.

"Relax your muscles or it won't work!" Midousuji poked her nose, making her even more tense. She knew very well it wouldn't work like that, but it was a somewhat hard to relax when he was bitching at her for every single thing she did. She decided she would keep quiet from now on as it seemed to be much safer for her stomach.

"You can also massage your belly if you want, that should help too. I'm not gonna do it for you though. It's gross! The idea of touching your ugly belly makes my own belly feel pretty bad too," he told her. Another unexpected but well-meant advice.

"L-Like this?" she stuttered when she started stroking her abdomen.

"WRONG! First, rub a bit around your belly button and then follow your colon with the movements of your hands, if you have any idea where that is, which I doubt, you stupid Sakamichiii."

Sakamichi had problems trying to suppress the smile that was enveloping her within as it was rather endearing how he tried to sound both bossy and pissed off, but at the same time give her advice and be generally useful.

"...N-No really, where did you learn this? It's not just common sense," she asked after a while. It was somehow helping! "I-If it was common sense, I would know what to do myself," she added and massaged her lower abdomen. Those parts weren't hurting, but it was quite pleasurable. She felt like a kitty getting belly rubs.

"Gross, thinking you would know, Sakamichiii. You're so gross. You wouldn't know, because you lack any common sense!" he laughed, but it was in no way a kind, sweet laughter.

Sakamichi frowned a little. Well, he was right, she DID lack common sense. Everyone with at least traces of such thing would run away from someone like Midousuji right away. There was no way she'd say that aloud though.

"Since I'm in a good mood, I will tell you, Sakamichiii. For racers like me it's a very useful thing to know. There are times when our stomachs don't really cooperate and it's good to know how to ease the discomfort. It doesn't really happen to me though, because it's gross," he explained anyway, once again shocking the girl with his talkativeness. "Besides, one of guys on my high school team was very skilled in that area, massages and alike, so you learn a thing or two just by getting them from him," he continued and then stopped for a moment as if he was thinking of what to say next. "Although I have no idea how he could stand something gross like that. Touching other people... GROSS!"

"Oh! So... you've learned from a friend! If you ever see him again, you have to tell him I'm grateful," she smiled.

"Friend?! HE WASN'T A FRIEND! Are you deaf, Sakamichiii? Or just stupid?! I said a guy from my team! How on earth does it translate to "a friend" in your tiny dummy skull?!" he hissed.

"I'm sorry," she quickly apologised. Midousuji grabbed her right wrist and started to move her hand over her belly in frustration.

"Like this, Sakamichiii, like this!" he yelled, putting force into her hand.

"I get it! D-Don't press it so much!" she whined and decided to stop him before he could hurt her. She slipped her wrist out of his clutch and captured his long fingers instead, briefly squeezing them. Midousuji stopped indeed, completely petrified for a moment and then jerked his hand away, leaving the girl alone. Surprisingly, he calmed down a little and quietly watched as she massaged her stomach, letting out a few content kitten-like purrs from time to time. Those purrs pissed him off so much, but he didn't feel like attacking her anymore.

"Sakamichiii, is what Manami said true?" he asked suddenly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sakamichi asked him back in fairly soft voice, softer than she had intended.

"The thing about you having grossly long hair less than a year ago," he expanded on his question.

"Y-Yeah. It's true. I cut them because of a cosplay. I was cosplaying a boy and my wig got ruined so I decided to cut my hair in the last minute. There was no other way," Sakamichi replied in a serious tone.

"Why did you say something else to Manami, you gross little liar?" he asked, his eyes squint.

"W...Well... M-Manami-kun doesn't seem like someone who would... understand, but... y-you keep calling others 'small fries', right?" she asked, her eyes sparkling a little as she continued to explain her assumptions about him watching a certain anime.

"Grooooss," he moaned lazily and looked away. Sakamichi's belly tensed even more, signalling she might have been right.

"Yeah, t-the point is... it's awkward to admit to Manami-kun that I'm into anime more than I should... but it's not awkward admitting it to you, I suppose," she chuckled, petting her stomach to ease it again.

"Gross, Sakamichii! Gross gross!" he mumbled and turned to his back, twitching his legs on the futon as if he got some kind of epileptic seizure, but it was probably caused merely by his frustration.

"S-Sorry... But that's how it is," she sighed. Her belly was slowly getting better. Midousuji lied on his back for a while, staring at the ceiling, looking almost dead. Then, he spoke again.

"You know Ikari Shinji?" he asked out of the blue. Words couldn't describe the thrill, joy and excitement that swallowed Sakamichi whole. Why? That was exactly the character she was cosplaying!

"I... I do, why?" she asked hesitantly, but it was just an act.

"Oh. I thought you would look somewhat similar if you had shorter hair, so...," he mumbled and sounded a bit surprised by her reply, or maybe even by the fact he asked her something like that in the first place.

"... A-Actually... I shortened my hair to... cosplay Shinji-kun," she admitted. Midousuji looked at her in utter shock, yelled his usual comment and turned away again. Sakamichi was "left alone", giggling happily to herself.

Surprisingly, they had quite a lot in common! It was him. It was the man she fell in love with for the first time in her life. She had no more doubts now.

"Do you have a photo?" Midousuji asked again, even though she thought he would keep quiet from now on.

"Of me as Shinji? Yeah, I have a lot of them," she nodded.

"Not that, gross! Besides, I believe I have that as well!" Midousuji shook his head and started rubbing his eyes; the sign of his irritation.

"Y-You have that?... D-Does that mean you were in Akiba that day? Did you attend the NGE event, Midousuji-kun?" she sat up and looked at him, clutching her fist as if her life depended on it.

"Be quiet, Sakamichii! Yes, I was there and I took a picture of Shinji that, now that I think of it, looked quite like you! But that's not what I meant, you disgusting girl! Do you have a photo of your ugly long hair?!" he overwhelmed her with words.

"Y-Yeah.. yeah, I have a lot of those as well," she said, unsure where he was heading with that question.

"Groooooss!" he replied, because he was Midousuji Akira and there was no chance he would reply anything else in this situation.

"D-Do you want to see what I looked like with long hair? I... I don't have a picture on my phone, but I will get you one once we get home, alright?" she offered willingly.

"Gross... Gross!" he repeated a few times. Normal people would think he was a freak who escaped a circus, but Sakamichi wasn't one of them. She had no clear idea what his weird behaviour meant. There was no proof of her assumptions, but she decided to just believe he had hard times dealing with embarrassment and this was how it showed. When she saw it in this light, it seemed... rather adorable.

Sakamichi wondered if she should say something else, but she decided not to say anything anymore and dwell on the happy feelings caused by Midousuji guessing the character she had been cosplaying without any hints. It didn't take long and she drifted back to the dream world in spite of her belly still acting slightly weird.

When she woke up again, it was already morning. A few stray rays were shining right into her face through the window, but they weren't the main cause of her awakening.

Her belly seemed totally fine, but she had some difficulties with breathing properly. Her chest felt heavy and she woke up having a dream about getting a heart attack.

"Ugh...," she gasped for air when she realised the uneasy feeling wasn't just her imagination. She opened her eyes, took her time adjusting them to the morning light, and looked down her body, raising her head a little in the process.

The poor heart of Onoda Sakamichi nearly stopped forever when she saw a mess of dark black hair right in front of her own face. In fact, now that she had her head raised, the black hair tickled her nose mischievously. They belonged to the boy who made a pillow of her chest and guessing from the regular and peaceful rhythm his back raised and lowered, he was still sound asleep. He wasn't laying on her with his whole weight, it was just the upper part of his chest resting on hers, but it was still enough to cover all of her ribcage and most of her belly and make her breathing a bit of a chore.

Sakamichi's face immediately grew red. Midousuji fell asleep on her. She could hardly believe it, even though she saw him right now, right in front of her eyes. The boy who made sure to always inform her how gross she was. The experience was absolutely terrible. She felt her body actually getting more and more aroused every second she stayed in this situation. For a good reason too. They got close and somehow intimate before, but the fact he was able to sleep on her chest like that signalised she wasn't as gross to him as he liked to claim. On top of that, he was the first one Sakamichi ever let so close to her heart. It's not like she was intimidated by love. If anything, she was quite oblivious about it. And this, this little morning surprise was extremely relieving yet quite stressing for all these reasons.

She had to do something. She couldn't bear this situation any longer. She had to wake him up!

"M-Midou...," she started hesitatingly, prepared to gently pat his back to wake him up.

"Hmm," he murmured in his sleep and moved a little, brushing his cheek against the exposed skin covering her sternum. "Mo... mmy...," he mumbled in addition and slipped his left hand under Sakamichi's back as if her ribcage was indeed just a pillow.

Sakamichi bit her lips instead of saying anything else. Her hands started to tremble and she was drowning in some sort of emotion. She couldn't tell what exactly it was. Her mind went blank and the only sure idea in her head was that she absolutely couldn't wake him up now.

Gathering all her courage, she embraced him and placed her left hand on the top of his head, caressing his black hair tenderly. If she was to sum up all her overflowing emotions of that instant in one word, she would probably settle for happiness. Little she knew the boy on her chest just woke up.

Midousuji lied there motionlessly, his mind waving him goodbye, putting on a silly colourful hat and running off into the sunset with its best friend Sanity, whose hat was equally silly and colourful.

He had a dream. A dream from his past – long gone now, but still painfully present and affecting. It was nothing unusual; he had these dreams quite often and even though they weren't really nice, he had learned to live with them. They had become a part of him, a part he couldn't throw away no matter how hard he tried, so at one point he just gave up trying.

He'd been told before that he sometimes muttered things from his sleep. Both members of his family and classmates (that were unlucky enough to share a room with him on training camps or school trips) confirmed that. Most of the time he just mumbled "gross gross", but they were times when he called his mom from his sleep and he totally hated that. Today was one of the times. He was half awake when he mumbled the damn word and immediately regretted it and questioned himself why the hell would he even do something like that. Was it because he was feeling so comfortable, so secure?

He quickly realised what was happening when he felt tiny, somewhat cold fingertips running through the short hair on the top of his head. Together with soothing, regular beating of a heart that filled his right ear and a typical feminine scent, he figured out the comfortable object he was resting on wasn't a pillow. He remembered what happened the last night; how he fell asleep on a single mattress right next to Sakamichi. He had no idea how he'd ended up like this, sleeping on her so peacefully, his right cheek pressed against her chest right between her breasts, now barely covered with completely messed up yukata.

He laid there absolutely lost and unsure what he should do now. Her beating heart was both alarming and calming and the way she caressed him and played with his hair innocently was making him sick, but not because it was gross, even though it kind of was. It was making his belly twist because he found it somehow exciting. He could stay like that the whole day, while internally punching his own mind for wearing the silly hat and making him do unreasonable bullshit. This wasn't like him at all. He was the grossest. The gross prince Midousuji Akira. He had to stop this.

"Sakamichiii, it's gr...," he started rather sharply, quickly raising his head and piercing her with his squint eyes. He couldn't finish the sentence.

She was blinking at him like a startled doe, her cheeks adorned with soft pinkness and leftovers of a slightly dumb smile still lingering on her lips. Her face was too close. Close enough to feel her breath that wasn't really great as it still smelled like alcohol a little, but at the same time it smelled very Sakamichi-like, whatever that even supposed to mean.

His left hand was still stuck under her back somewhere between her shoulder blades. He gazed at her, realising all sorts of things starting from the position of their bodies to the unusual warmth that appeared from who knows where. Sakamichi's own left hand, the one that was brushing his hair so cherishingly a few seconds ago, was now resting on her chest, trembling a little just like her lips. Her right hand that embraced him, however, still rested on his back, although it pressed against his skin with more hesitation than when he was asleep.

"S-So y-you woke up, Akir... I mean, M-Midousuji-kun," she hummed suddenly. He saw the colour of her cheeks turning from soft pink to bright red – just like his own. She almost called him by his first name, even though she was sober. Last night he paid no attention to that because people generally talked irrelevant things under the spell called "alcohol", but this was quite different. He felt goose bumps popping out all over his body as he suffered some sort of paralysation. His eyes were fixed on her and if it was as easy to read in them like in her own eyes, Sakamichi would surely realise how frightened he was.

His irises shrank even more when the girl nervously bit her lower lip as if she wanted to punish herself for almost uttering his first name. In that instant he knew what he was going to do the very next second. He wanted to kiss her so badly... Even if he should regret it later, right now it was the only possible outcome of the situation they found themselves in. The situation that he saw as if he put on glasses with coloured lenses, the colour being yellow. Sakamichi looked like she was veiled in some sort of yellow, warm light. Why? Why this cursed girl of all people?

He leaned in for a kiss, ready to make her his own with the affectionate testament. He didn't even stop when she let out a little whimper showing she knew what was coming. The last thing he noticed was her hand shivering on his back.

Nevertheless, it was not meant to be. After all the disturbances when they got so close to kissing and it didn't work out, he thought this one would succeed, but no. Circumstances wouldn't let them bring back the scene from the toilet stall in their workplace.

The knocking on the door that stopped them wasn't the most annoying thing. It was the voice Midousuji heard after it.

"Sakamichi-chan, good morning! Wake up? We agreed on having a little ride this morning!" Manami asked cheerfully while knocking on the door once more.

"Ugh... I... I just woke up!" Sakamichi blurted out, her expression extremely anxious.

"Alright, I'll wait for you in the garage," he said and left.

The next few moments were the most awkward thing ever. Sakamichi and Midousuji stared at each other. The boy was so irritated.

"I-It was M-Manami-kun," Sakamichi informed him as if he was completely retarded and didn't know.

"GROSS!" Midousuji yelled and rolled away from the girl. Sakamichi knew she made a mistake by saying that.

"M-Midousuji-kun, I-I'm sorry," she apologised.

"Whatever, Grossmichi. Just hurry up and go after your darling," Midousuji pouted, pretending he didn't care, although he cared way too much.

"A-Alright," she sighed and got up, ready to change into riding jersey and pants.

Midousuji just sat there, ignoring her and torturing himself over the nasty feeling of emptiness in his stomach and the stupid colourful hats his sanity and reason decided to put on.


End file.
